


Some Assembly Required

by Lumelle



Series: Instructions for Assembly (Some Parts Sold Separately) [1]
Category: Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Young Avengers
Genre: Dimension Travel, F/M, M/M, Magical Accidents, Multi, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-01
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-03 02:18:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 91,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1064542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumelle/pseuds/Lumelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve isn't sure if Tony's newly renovated Avengers Tower could be his home. However, for a man outside time, it is all he has. Settling down is complicated by his conflicting feelings towards Tony and Pepper -- and the four teenagers suddenly appearing in the middle of the living room.</p><p>The Young Avengers, meanwhile, find themselves in a world very different from their own. Between Billy's missing magic, trust issues, and the difficulty of being heroes, a trip to Latveria will be the least of their worries before everyone finds their way home and the Avengers can assemble in full.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Guests, Uninvited

**Author's Note:**

  * For [asario](https://archiveofourown.org/users/asario/gifts).



> This story is a crossover between MCU and the Young Avengers branch of 616, cutting off after _the Avengers_ and _The Children's Crusade_ , respectively. The story takes place in the MCU 'verse, and **does not** require knowledge of 616 or the characters thereof to understand, though being familiar with them may make the story more enjoyable.
> 
> This was my NaNoWriMo 2013 project, and is now nearly finished. As my customary December project for this year, I will be posting at least one Avengers update (chapter or one-shot) every day until the 25th, Internet and RL permitting. Most of these updates (20 chapters + After Credits) will be in this story, and I hope to finish posting this by Christmas.
> 
>  **PLEASE NOTE:** This story will eventually contain canon-level violence, discussed canon-level torture and imprisonment, implied past sexual assault, kidnapping and imprisonment, and mild mentions of homophobia. It will also contain a threesome, strong language, and discussion (though no instances) of unfaithfulness. **Please read accordingly.**

The problem with freedom, Steve had come to realize, was that it was easy to have too much of it.

He hadn't thought so, not at first. When he'd set out on his bike his only thought had been getting away from everything, from orders he wasn't sure he could follow in good conscience, from leaders he couldn't trust not to lie to him. It'd been almost exhilarating, knowing all he had to lead him was the open road, the freedom to go anywhere he wanted.

However, it hadn't taken too long for him to realize he didn't truly have anywhere to go.

Back in his time, his life had been full of the war for so long, he hadn't truly thought about what he would do after it. Sure, he'd had some vague ideas of settling down with a nice girl and maybe getting an education. However, that had been but a distant dream in the middle of battles and pain and death, a dream he had said his goodbyes to when he saw Bucky falling down, when he had told Peggy he would take her dancing, a proper date at last. Then he'd woken up, in a world where there was nothing left for him, and all he'd had in mind was getting away from SHIELD, finding himself a new life to drown out the voices of his past.

Now he was free to make anything out of his life, a bike to take him wherever he wished and enough back pay on his account to settle down somewhere, and he found himself with no idea where to go.

He'd gone around looking at the old places, at first, seeing what was the same and what had changed. There were some hints of his time, here and there, a building or shape he recognized, but those only served to highlight the differences. The buildings and people and technology and the city were different, even the air feeling foreign as he breathed in deep, hoping for some hint of his home. Whatever he wanted to do for a home, it was clear he'd have to start from scratch.

Start from nothing, and with nobody.

Steve had almost thought of going back to SHIELD. At least they had offered him some structure, even if it had been rules and regulations to keep him in line like a good little dog. However, the few people there he might have cared to meet again were gone, some more irrevocably than others. He didn't know when Hawkeye and Black Widow would return, didn't know where they had gone in the first place, and wasn't sure if they'd even want to see him again. Director Fury was a constant, but he couldn't face him again, not quite yet, certainly couldn't follow his orders ever again without questioning his motives. And the one man he was sure would have liked to see him again, the one he would have liked to know better than the brief conversations they'd had… well. Steve was never going to see him again.

Phil Coulson. It was just another name, another face to add to the list of those he had lost. The latest addition to a life he was never going to lead again, opportunities he could never have again. He hadn't known how to react, how to talk to the agent, too flustered by his open admiration; now, he would never get to break through that admiration and show he was just an ordinary man who happened to be a bit stronger than most.

Just an ordinary man. Nothing like the hero who had risen against Loki all alone.

Steve had never considered himself a hero. As a child, he might have dreamed of such, a hopeless dream in the face of the reality of his frail body and numerous ailments. He'd tried his hardest when he grew up and the world was set on fire, had tried to enlist again and again, hoping to make a difference. And when he'd finally been granted the strength, the ability to do what he'd always wanted, he'd come to realize he was not a hero. He had little to fear and even less to lose. Compared with those who had actually laid down their lives for their countries, he'd been nothing, a mere symbol in a colorful uniform. All he could hope to do was being the best symbol he could, to inspire those who truly were heroes.

And yet he'd had the gall to tell another man he would never be a hero.

He'd been proved wrong, then, he got the feeling Tony often proved people wrong about himself, though he supposed it would have been difficult to do so in a more dramatic fashion than what he had witnessed. He had seen once again how apparently anyone could be a true hero aside from him. He was just a leader of heroes, for what little leading they needed.

Now, he didn't even have anyone to lead. Nobody to lead him, either. He was free at last, and that was growing a more and more daunting prospect by every day that passed.

It took him two weeks to figure out his new phone well enough to realize that it had a number saved on it only labeled "Tony". It wasn't until another week of wandering aimlessly later that he actually gathered his courage and called.

"Yeah?" The voice that answered the phone was familiar enough, but sounded rather distracted. In the background Steve could hear the faint sound of metal hitting metal. "What is it?"

"Ah, Tony? Is that you?" Of course it was Tony, Steve chided himself. The voice was right, and that was the name attached to the number on his phone. Still, he couldn't help but fear this was some kind of an elaborate prank.

"The one and only. Well, I'm pretty sure there are other guys named Tony, at least two or three, but I'm also one of them." There was a stronger metallic strike, now. "Who's this?"

"Ah, Steve." He paused. "I mean. Steve Rogers."

"Right! Captain!" There was the tone of recognition in Tony's voice, and something Steve chose to interpret as a positive emotion. "It took you a while to call. I was starting to wonder if you could even use your phone."

"I did manage to figure it out eventually. Thank you for giving it to me, by the way." However much he had tried to protest against accepting such an expensive gift.

"Eh, it's nothing. I figured you'd rather not have too much SHIELD tech on you, I wouldn't put it past those guys to track you down." Because Tony himself would never do something like that, obviously.

"I'm pretty sure we've established that if they truly tried to find me, they wouldn't need a tracking device to do so." Steve drew a deep breath. "So. Is there a particular reason why you chose to give me your number?"

"Well, I thought you might like to get in touch some time. You seem like the type to go for the whole team spirit thing." Tony sounded almost cheerful. "That and I wanted to tell you about the renovations."

"Renovations?" Steve blinked. "Do you mean the Stark Tower?" As he recalled, it had been damaged rather badly in the battle, though at least it had still been standing, unlike some of the other buildings in the area. New York would be bearing the scars for quite a while.

"What else? Though I've been thinking of renaming it or something." Tony paused, and the sounds of tinkering intensified for a moment before ceasing entirely. "So, see, I pretty much have to rebuild the top floors entirely. And then I came up with this awesome idea, because all my ideas are awesome and that's a fact, and then I got the other owner to agree as well so I can actually go ahead with my absolutely awesome idea."

"Right. So what is this idea?" Steve supposed it involved him, if Tony had been hoping to talk to him about it, but he had no idea what it could be.

"Simple." He could hear the grin in the other man's voice. "I want you to move in."

Steve blinked, resisting the urge to take his phone off his ear to stare at it. Certainly he hadn't heard right. "What?"

"Come live here." Tony chuckled. "Don't panic, I've designed rooms for the whole team. Bruce's already staying here with me, seeing how he's not really got a lot of places to go. You're next on my list, since if you're here, I can probably actually strongarm Fury into letting our dearest assassin friends leave their cells as well."

"If you mean Hawkeye and Widow, I somehow get the feeling they wouldn't stay anywhere they don't want to, no matter what the Director says." Steve sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Why would you want me to actually live with you?"

"Temporary insanity?" Tony chuckled. "I know we didn't get along at first, but, well, Pepper seems convinced you can't be entirely bad because she's a terrible judge of character, I mean that, there's no way anyone with any actual social intelligence would choose to be with me as long as there are other choices." He paused. "And that's probably not what I should be saying when I want you to live with me."

"I'm pretty sure I could have figured out all on my own that you're probably not the easiest of people to get along with." So Pep, Pepper, was Tony's girl, if he'd deciphered that right. He wondered what kind of a woman Tony Stark would go for. "And what if it turns out we really don't get along?"

"Then you can always move somewhere else. Or I can, not like I have a shortage of places to stay. And I'm not going to charge you rent or anything, so it's not like there's much of a risk for you, either."

"So you want me to move in with you because your girl seems to think I'm not a bad guy." Yes, definitely a Stark.

"First, never, ever call Pepper a girl where she can hear you, she'll re-educate you faster than you can stutter through your apologies. And second, not quite. I figured this team thing might actually work if there's going to be more trouble, and since the majority of us has either no place to go or some tiny closet at SHIELD, it obviously falls upon me to be the provider for our merry band." His voice turned into a conspiratorial whisper. "I'm pretty sure this is just part of Pepper's grand scheme to teach me people skills, but I'm confident I'll manage to let her down all over again."

"Right." Steve paused. He couldn't see how this could lead to anything but a disaster. But then, Tony was also right in that he had nowhere else to go, nowhere else he would have cared to be at least. And he did want to get to know him better, to know just how wrong his initial impression had been. "Do you really think that would be all right?"

"Look, Cap, one thing you should know about me: it's really hard to get me to do things I don't want to. That means that I wouldn't be inviting you if I didn't think it's fine. Sure, we may start fighting within a week or maybe you'll just want to throw me through a window after half an hour in the same room with me, but I think it's worth a try at least."

"Why would you want me there, though? And don't tell me Pepper said it's a good idea or something about the team. What do you think is going to happen?"

"Best case scenario? Maybe I'll figure out why my old man seemed to think you were made of pure gold and rainbow farts. That, and you and Bruce can keep company for each other when I'm drowning in SI stuff or whatever." The sound of tinkering had returned, though it was still faint. "And you can probably tell that I haven't really planned this thing or whatever, but then some of my best ideas have come about without much planning, so I figure it's worth at least a try."

"Of course." He should say no. Obviously this was little more than a whim for Tony, he'd probably regret it before Steve could even make his way to the tower, and if nothing else it would eventually lead to an explosion, a literal one or otherwise. Agreeing would probably be one of the worst decisions in his life, and he'd had plenty of bad ones to compare with.

"So, what do you say? Want to keep company for poor old me?"

Say no. You should say no. "Ah. When could I move?"

"Whenever. The damages have been repaired for the most part, and the living space is all finished. If you just walk in to the Tower and head to the VIP elevator in the main lobby, JARVIS will make sure you get in."

He should have asked for more information, should have said he'd consider it, should have at least asked who exactly JARVIS was. However, before he could decide what to do, Tony said something about having to go because of a robot uprising and cut off the call.

The best choice would have been to just forget the entire thing. Maybe send Tony a message or something so he wouldn't be expecting Steve and then continue his search for a place to call his own. Yes, that would be for the best.

He supposed he could blame his tendency for bad decisions for the fact that he soon found himself standing in the main lobby of Stark Tower, staring at the door of the VIP elevator and trying not to be too surprised that it had simply slid open as he approached.

*

To Steve's absolute surprise, his decision to accept Tony's invitation didn't immediately blow up in his face.

He had no doubt some part of this was thanks to Miss Potts — Pepper, he had to remind himself she was Pepper or she would be sure to remind him in rather sharp words — who seemed rather happy with the idea of Tony actually developing a social life of some description. He had only met her a couple of times, but from the first time he had been introduced to her and seen the way Tony looked at her, it had been obvious the man was smitten. He might have been jealous, reminded as he was of Peggy and how he was never going to get the opportunity to call her his, but he couldn't help but feel happy for Tony instead. Tony was a good man, that much was clear, however annoying he might have been from time to time, and he deserved that bit of happiness.

The first couple of days had gone by in a blur with Steve simply trying to get used to his new home. Even in this age of technology, the Stark Tower was clearly futuristic, with everything and anything controlled by JARVIS, Tony's invisible helper. Tony kept telling Steve to ask JARVIS if there was anything he needed to get or find or know, but he still felt somewhat awkward at doing so, as though he was demanding too much of him. It? Steve just wasn't sure how to think about JARVIS, and he couldn't very well ask Tony.

JARVIS was his most usual companion, despite the awkwardness, given the small number of people living in that part of the tower. Doctor Banner spent most of his time at his lab, and when he did come out, his interactions with Steve were mostly polite and friendly but not terribly close. Steve couldn't truly blame him; he hadn't treated the poor doctor very well, after all. However, he seemed to be more open towards Tony, so Steve had some hope of winning his trust. At least, he hoped he did.

Tony was a mystery. Whereas Banner was carefully distant, Tony was all over the place in the strangest way. He could go from sweet and almost soft with Pepper to mad with inspiration to enraged about one matter or another within the space of hours, and Steve felt almost winded at trying to follow his train of thought. Sometimes he was sure he would be alone in the living room, with both of the scientists holed up in their respective labs, only for Tony to suddenly storm in, eager to show off his latest bit of brilliance or wanting Steve to lend an ear to his ranting about someone who clearly was an idiot, no see Cap, I cannot believe anyone would actually think something like this. It was during those latter moments that Steve sometimes caught himself staring, trapped in the blaze of Tony's glare, fingers itching for a pencil to try and capture that look on paper.

For all that he was still mostly a mystery, what Steve did manage to realize was that Tony wasn't Howard. Of course, he'd known this, had known it with keen pain in his gut ever since he had first seen the man, but it wasn't until now that it was starting to truly sink in. Every moment he spent around Tony made it clearer, confirmed the thoughts he already had forming in his head. Every day brought out a new side to him, some new aspect of his personality Steve had never expected, some new way his face shifted that he couldn't imagine on Howard's features, a way of wording he couldn't hear in the other voice. It was the other voice, now, the memory of Howard's tones, replaced by Tony's rapid-fire explanations echoing in his ears, his sarcastic remarks and rare moments of sincerity. It was Tony's features that were taking more space in his head now, this new face coming to mind first when he thought of a Stark. He found himself cataloging the differences in a new way now, all the ways that Howard was different from his son rather than Tony from his father.

He suspected, rather strongly at that, that he would find it easier to like Tony than it had ever been to like Howard.

That was perhaps the most surprising thing. He and Tony had not gotten off to a great start at all, rather to the opposite; meanwhile, Howard and he had never fought quite like that. However, there was something about Tony that drew Steve to him, more so than Howard ever had. The elder Stark had been an incredible inventor, a good ally to have on his side, a brave man who had shone like a lighthouse in the night, focused and brilliant and pointing those around him in the right direction. However, Steve had never found himself wanting to get close to him, had never been drawn to the lighthouse beam as much as he'd merely used it as an aid to navigate the stormy waters. Tony, Steve found himself thinking, was a bonfire, shining and burning in the middle of shadows, crackling and sending sparks flying everywhere. He could get burned, that much was clear, had already been burned once and felt sharp pain at the well-aimed words, yet he still wanted to stay close and bask in the warmth. Tony's genius was more alive, a dancing flame rather than a single, pointed beam, and God was his metaphor getting out of hand.

The point, if there was a point to his private musings, was that Tony was not his father. There were similarities, yes, but those were overshadowed by the wealth of differences between the two. And, from what he could tell so far, Steve rather preferred Tony, bad first impressions aside.

He wasn't sure what Tony thought about him, exactly, probably wouldn't have found out even if he had asked directly from the man himself. Tony would have made a joke about it, declared his undying love or told him without a moment's hesitation he was only fattening Steve up so he could make a roast out of him. Or possibly both, Tony's sense of humor being what it was.

Whatever the truth, though, obviously Tony didn't think he was unworthy of spending time with. Sure, Tony had his own life, a busy life at that which left Steve often morose at the realization of how empty his own days were, but somehow he still found reasons to hang around Steve every now and then. Aside from needing an audience for his angry rants or latest breakthroughs, it seemed Tony found great pleasure in educating Steve about the modern world whenever he had a free moment. At first Steve had thought he was simply smug about knowing so much more than Steve, but over time he convinced himself that there wasn't anything condescending about the manner Tony answered his questions. Sure, he was sometimes amused at the matters Steve was ignorant about, but he never made him feel stupid for not knowing about something that had come after his time. On top of that, Tony seemed more than happy to talk about the things he knew, always enthusiastic to point out the genius that had gone into figuring out this or inventing that. Between him and JARVIS, while Steve still had quite a lot of history and other such matters to catch up on, he was finding it easier and easier to adjust to living in the modern world.

The one part of this age he would probably never get used to, however, was modern TV. When he first realized just how many channels there were available, he'd almost felt dizzy. The idea of so much content available, so many programs he could watch if he could find the time, had seemed almost absurd. When he'd mentioned to Tony he had no idea how there could be so many things to watch, Tony had snorted and told him this was because the great majority of it was rubbish. And, being Tony, he had then moved to proving this to Steve with a very thorough demonstration.

While Steve soon came to agree that most of TV programming was not worth watching, he was not as convinced about the uselessness of watching Tony watching TV. It seemed that no matter what they put on, be it a children's cartoon or the latest news, Tony always found a reason to disagree with whatever facts were being presented as true. He used the exact same tones for telling the news caster just how wrong he was about his report on the political landscape as he did for pointing out how atrocious the portrayal of gravity was in most children's cartoons. Steve might have pointed out both the uselessness and ridiculousness of ranting about mistakes in something intended to entertain three-year-olds, but more often than not he found himself just smiling and nodding along, enjoying the spark in Tony's eyes.

Right now there was no ranting, though, just occasional comments on perceived inaccuracies, which likely meant that Tony was actually enjoying the program. Not that he was watching most of it, anyway; his hands were busy playing with one of his endless tablets, manipulating what seemed like a diagram of some kind of a machine. Steve couldn't tell what it was supposed to be, but then, if he'd needed to know, he trusted Tony would have told him, eagerly and at length.

Maybe this could actually work, Steve thought. Maybe he could get used to all this — to this century, this tower, this Stark by his side making snide comments at the atrocious security systems at the fictional facility on a fictional space station. All he needed was a moment to get settled before anything strange or life-changing happened again.

It was then that four teenagers suddenly materialized midair and fell to the floor, unconscious.

*

When four kids decided to appear right in the middle of the living room, Tony first thought he had finally overdone his caffeine-fueled design craze and started hallucinating. It was only to be expected; Pepper had warned him often enough that sooner or later, he would snap. It was nothing but appropriate that his mind would choose to inform him of the passing of this particular gate by showing him something that he knew to be absolutely impossible.

Then Steve shot off the couch and towards the kids, and, with a slow blink, Tony started to consider this might not have been just his imagination. Pity. At least a psychotic breakdown might have been treatable.

"They are alive," Steve breathed as he reached the sudden arrivals, sounding relieved, because of course Captain Perfect's first and foremost concern at reality-defying intruders was to make sure they were all right. Tony, being the less idealistic of the two and shut up Rhodey he was absolutely a cynic no matter what, was slower in setting his tablet aside and standing up.

"JARVIS? Can you tell me what happened?" Because JARVIS would know. JARVIS knew everything.

"I'm afraid I have very little data to offer, sir," JARVIS replied, because fuck Tony's life. "One moment, my sensors indicated only two people within the living area, the next, four more appeared."

"So they didn't sneak in as invisible or something?"

"I do hope I would have noticed such an approach." JARVIS sounded actually insulted. Tony was a genius, that was what he was. "No, far as I can tell, they simply were not here until a moment ago. There is no indication of any of the perimeter security systems being breached."

"So, what? They teleported in?" Which was a fascinating thought, but worrying all the same. His living room wasn't open for school field trips, thanks.

"To my infinite regret, Sir, in this particular matter your guess is as good as mine."

"Is that sass I detect, JARVIS? Really? I'd say I built you better than that but fuck if I'd know, I was drunk half the time I was writing your program."

"That would explain quite a few things, Sir." Aw, yeah, his AI was the best there is. "For now, all I can tell you is that their vital signs seem for the most part consistent with ordinary human teenagers in a state of temporary unconsciousness."

"For the most part?" Steve frowned. Tony had to admit it did not sound too good. "What do you mean?"

"One of our unexpected guests has an unusually fast pulse for someone apparently unconscious. However, that is the only abnormality I can detect for the moment."

"You mean, aside from the part where they should not be here at all if they were good kids and obeyed things like the laws of logic and physics and private property?"

"Yes, well, I presumed that would be taken as a given, sir."

"Right." Still somewhat wary, Tony walked closer, joining Steve in his inspection of the intruders. There were four of them, somewhere in their late teens most probably, wearing ordinary street clothes for their age bracket. They had landed in a heap, lying partly on top of each other, in a manner that was reasonably consistent with them having appeared in the middle of the room and falling to the floor at once. Three boys, one girl, with two of the boys having identical features though drastically different hair. "We should probably take a closer look. And no, I don't want to hear any complaints about respecting their privacy; if they end up in my living room, I claim I have the right to make sure they're not carrying a bomb with them or something."

"I think that's an understandable argument." Steve, ever the gentleman, carefully extracted the girl from under a couple of legs and set her to the side before turning towards the boys. "Earrings are not unusual on men nowadays, right?"

"Ten points for staying with the times, Captain." Though the number of them the non-identical boy had on his ears was somewhat above the average, still. Ah, teen rebellion. "Try to see if you can find anything with their names on it." He was personally going to start by rummaging the couple of bags they had with them. They didn't seem like anything but ordinary school bags for ordinary high school kids, but better safe than sorry. He really, really didn't want teleporting suicide bombers at his hands. Or in his house, for that matter.

Tony's search of the apparent twins didn't bring up anything too peculiar. One of them clearly had a fake ID, because there was no way a guy this baby-faced was actually 21, white hair or not. Never mind the fact that his almost-reflection's driving license said he was only 17. At least he had names — or what seemed like names. "JARVIS? Run a search for these names, would you?"

"Right away, sir."

Before Tony could thank JARVIS, or possibly brag to Steve about what an excellent AI he had, his thoughts were interrupted by a surprised sound from Steve. Turning towards Steve, he found him kneeling beside the girl. "Something wrong?"

"Well, I'm not sure." So why was the Captain frowning? "It's just — she's got a weapon."

"What?" Tony immediately moved closer. He wasn't sure what he'd expected — a gun, probably, not that he had much time to think about possibilities — but what he saw was most certainly not it. "A bow?"

"Yes. A well-used one, too."

"And powerful. You could put an arrow through a man with that." At Steve's surprised gaze, he shrugged. "What? It's a weapon. I know weapons. I'm one of the foremost experts on the subject, in fact."

"Well, yes, but I was under the impression your expertise ran more towards more advanced weaponry. At least gunpowder level, given your propensity for things that explode."

"Professionally, yes. Back when I was at boarding school, though, they had us pick a sport, and archery seemed like the least demanding choice." Tony shrugged. "Boy was I wrong. At least I got a good working knowledge of bows, though, and that one is most definitely a weapon."

"So, this isn't merely for sports?"

"I'd be pretty surprised; you don't need nowhere near that much power to hit a target. It doesn't look like a hunting bow, either, at least not the ones I've seen." Tony shook his head. "I'm not sure what they're doing here, or how they got in, but I don't think I like it."

"Well, what are we going to do?" Steve frowned. "As long as we don't know anything, there's not much we can do about the situation."

"Let's think about it for a bit." Tony clicked his tongue. "Did you find any ID on them?"

"Yes, I did. Just ordinary New York State driving licenses." Steve showed them to Tony. "Why do you need those?"

"I'll have JARVIS check their names, along with the wonder twins. As for right now, I vote we put them somewhere behind a locked door for now while we think about our choices."

"Do you really think that's necessary?" Oh, crap. Not the Captain Puppy Dog eyes. Good thing he had the perfectly reasonable excuse of returning to his tablet to turn away from those.

"Frankly? Yes, I do. We have no idea who they are or why they are here; for all we know, this could be an attack gone wrong, or some more very human-looking aliens. They won't be hurt by getting locked up for a moment, and we don't have to worry about them sneaking in to stab us in the back while we discuss the situation."

"I would notice them before they managed to stab us, I'm sure."

"I wasn't being literal, Cap." Tony sighed, standing up. "Let's take them to the room I planned for Thor. It's got the biggest bed; they should all fit nicely." Because he doubted Steve would have approved of leaving the kids on the floor. He was far too nice for his own good sometimes.

It was clear enough Steve still wasn't entirely happy with the idea, but even he couldn't deny that Tony had a point. Which was a good thing; Tony considered himself pretty fit, but he'd have had a hard time moving all the kids over by himself. Of course, Bruce wasn't even there to help, having chosen this precise afternoon to go out at town. He was going to hear about his sudden betrayal later.

Assuming, of course, that they didn't get visited by some sudden teleporting Avengers-killing strike team before Bruce got back.


	2. Stranger Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After some initial panic, everyone manages a more or less calm discussion. However, actual conclusions are still not reached.

This was, Tommy noted, not his bed.

A quick trawl through his memories confirmed this also wasn't Kate's bed, or Billy's bed, or any of the beds they still had in the old headquarters just in case. This, he decided, was worrying. He most definitely should not have been waking up in a bed he didn't recognize, especially not when his last clear memory was being on their way home in the middle of the day.

Calm down, Tommy. There's absolutely no reason to freak out.

Not hearing anything too suspicious aside from the sound of someone breathing far too close to him, he opened his eyes. The ceiling above him was one he didn't recognize, which did not come as much of a surprise after the strange bed. Bouncing off the bed, he looked around. The room was large and decorated in a rather opulent fashion, but otherwise it didn't seem to have any special features. It was a bedroom, far as he could tell, except much bigger and more luxurious than could possibly be necessary. A quick round around the room didn't reveal any obvious signs of where they were, either, though a look out of the window made it clear they were somewhere high up in the city.

Returning to the bed, he looked at the people still lying in it. The bed was just as unnecessarily big as the room around it, having fit the four of them without trouble. The other three were still asleep, of course. Slowpokes. He always had to wait for them.

He wasn't worried, of course not, they were just being slow as usual and that was all, but he did still lean close enough to brush a strand of hair from Kate's face. If his hand paused long enough to feel the warmth of her breath, well, nobody was there to witness that. Billy and Teddy seemed fine, too, aside from the whole unconscious in a strange place bit.

Heading for the door, he was less than happy to find it locked. It didn't seem like the door or the walls were protected against his powers in any significant way, but blowing up something would attract attention and he didn't truly like the idea of crossing the wall with no idea of what was on the other side. He was even less eager to leave everyone else behind, unconscious and helpless. Like it or not, it fell upon him to make sure everyone was all right.

"Kate?" She had to wake up, right? She'd never been a particularly heavy sleeper, certainly not when someone was calling for her. Never when he was calling for her. "Kate? Oi, wake up!" He shook her shoulder, hoping to get her awake.

Kate gave no reaction. Suddenly the warm breath against his hand failed to reassure him.

"Billy? Teddy? Hey, you idiots, wake up!" So slow. Why were they so slow? They should have been awake already, he was awake after all, why were they not awake and how was he going to wake them?

Think, Tommy, think. You don't have a brain five times faster than anyone else's for nothing, do you?

While his memories were still hazy, he was damn sure he hadn't come here under his own power. That meant someone had to have brought them here, dumped them on the bed and locked the door. That meant that someone, likely a hostile party, knew where they were, and was keeping an eye on them if they had any amount of sense.

"I don't know who you are," he said, looking around the room for any readily apparent cameras. "And I don't know what you want. But I promise you, whoever you are, if you've harmed my friends, I will tear you apart, limb from limb." He paused, not receiving a response, not very surprised. "Are we clear on that? Great. Now, you have precisely ten seconds to open the door before I blow it up."

He may not have had the patience to wait quite that long. It didn't matter much, anyway. He was going to get scolded by Kate no matter what, for compromising his identity and other such shit. Like that was important anymore. Someone had taken them prisoner; such people did not deserve any form of subtlety.

Definitely not reinforced against him, he noticed as the door started to vibrate faster and faster, finally exploding in a shower of splinters from the heavy wood. Good. That meant they were dealing with someone who either didn't know who they were or didn't have the resources to prepare for them. Either or both would be a relief. Billy had enough scars on his ears as it was, and no sick fuck was allowed to put more there.

Even the sound of the explosion had not woken up any of the others, which was definitely a worry. He still didn't like the idea of leaving them behind, but he supposed he could take a quick look around, to assess the situation. Just a few seconds, and he'd be right back. Nobody could get to them before he returned; nobody was fast enough. Except maybe Quicksilver, just maybe, and if his idiot uncle was planning to hurt the others things were worse than Tommy had thought.

His quick run of the place didn't reveal anything special. Corridors and locked doors, luxurious surroundings but nothing overly strange like symbols of some Apocalypse-worshiping cult or whatever. The elevator doors wouldn't open, which was a definite flaw in an elevator, but the stairs were faster anyway. Someone had to be here, and he was going to find them, no matter —

Captain America and Iron Man were sitting in what looked like a kitchen, drinking coffee.

"Wait, what the fuck are you guys up to?" Tommy came to a halt in front of them, frowning. "I thought we were past this whole 'let's treat Billy like a potential villain' crap?"

"What?" Tony frowned, and there was something strange about the way he looked, the way they both looked, though Tommy couldn't quite put a finger on it.

"Oh, don't play stupid with me." He set his hands on his hips, knowing he didn't cut a truly intimidating figure in his street clothes but trying all the same. "What the fuck gives? We haven't even put on our costumes in over a year, I know I haven't, at any rate. You've got no fucking excuse to try and lock us up." His fists clenched. "Billy's just about starting to laugh like usual again. I'm damn well not going to let you fuck this up."

For a moment he just got strange gazes. Then Tony's frown deepened. "Okay, kid, I'm not sure what the hell you're talking about, but calm down. Why exactly do you expect us to know you or your friends?"

Tommy froze. Of all the possible responses he might have expected, that had never even made it to the list. Yet here he heard it, he actually heard Stark claiming he had no idea what he was talking about, had no idea who Tommy even was.

Meaning this could not be Stark.

He was back by Kate's side in a flash, shaking her again. "Kate, you've got to wake up," he pleaded, and if there was a note of distress in his voice, well, he was pretty sure it was warranted in this case. "Kate, babe, please wake up, we're in a bad fucking situation, wake up wake up…"

"Mmm… Tommy?" At last, Kate opened her eyes, just a bit. "What… where are we?"

"I've got no idea," he breathed, relieved to see her awake at last. "We're in some place I don't know, it's damn well not the mansion, the door was locked but I busted it and then I found Cap and Stark drinking coffee but they're acting like they don't know me or what I'm talking about and oh crap what if they're Skrulls or something?" Because Skrulls would definitely have plenty of reasons to cause trouble for them. Except Xavin, maybe, or possibly the Super Skrull, but he wasn't about to trust those two without question, either.

"If it were Skrulls, wouldn't they try to appear like the real ones instead of being obviously fake?" She sat up, looking around. Her eyes paused on the still unconscious Teddy and Billy, then returned to Tommy. "What happened? My memory's kind of hazy." Her tone made it clear she did not much like this fact.

"I've no idea." Tommy sighed. "Last I remember, we were walking home, the four of us. It… I think you'd been shooting? And then… I know something happened, but I don't know what."

"Right." Kate stood up from the bed at last. "I don't see my bow anywhere, meaning that whoever brought us here doesn't want us armed. How are the boys?"

"Alive but unconscious," Tommy replied. It was good to have the leader back online, he was really good at thinking quick but not so stellar at wise decisions. "None of you even stirred when I blew up the door."

"Well, I think we can expect the Cap and Tony, real or not, to arrive soon now that you've shown your face so they know we're awake and the door's not exactly stopping us." Kate walked around the bed to the side of the door, eyeing it warily. "Anything else you noticed?"

"Nothing I could analyze. All I saw on a quick run were living quarters; a lot of locked doors, though, and everything's pretty high quality. All windows are consistent with a high skyscraper, but the surroundings don't look like we're in Baxter Building or any other place I'd recognize. Definitely looks like New York, but I didn't see any specific landmarks to confirm. Elevator doors wouldn't open; I took the stairs up, but they don't go much further down. I caught a glimpse of something that looked like a big gym, but besides us and those two there's nobody around." This he could do. Giving Kate information was easy, he always got that part right.

"That'd seem consistent with them actually not knowing who we are. Nobody who actually knows who they're dealing with would think a locked door and two people would hold us, no matter how strong one of the people." Kate shook her head. "Was there anything about them that seemed off in particular?"

"Besides not knowing why I was so angry about locking us up? Well, there was something off with the way they looked, but I couldn't really say what exactly it was." He paused, hearing the sound of hurried footsteps approaching. "Well, I guess you'll see them for yourself, now."

"Right." Kate stood even straighter, her feet in a balanced position, appearing relaxed but ready for a fight. Tommy stood beside her, waiting for her cue before doing anything.

"What if they are Skrulls, though?" he murmured. "Really stupid ones? How are we even going to find that out?"

"Just wait." She stood still until the face of the not-Cap appeared in the doorway, suspicion on his face. At that, Kate stood to attention. "We are the company of Dorrek VIII," she barked, the voice of the leader she hadn't used in a while, and damn it felt good to hear that again. "In the name of the Skrull empire reborn, I demand that you release us and explain yourselves."

There was a momentary silence. Then not-Stark looked into the room as well, looking puzzled. "What?"

Kate's posture relaxed slightly, though Tommy could tell she was still on edge. "Okay. They didn't either react or attack us outright. That means they're not Skrulls, but also not our Cap and Tony."

"Sometimes I don't know if you're a genius or insane." Tommy paused. "Or maybe you're just insanely genius."

"The two do often come together." Not-Tony stepped into the room. "Okay. I don't know what that was all about, nor did I decipher the very fast rant up in the kitchen, but I'd really like an explanation for this whole mess."

"Well, that makes two of us." Kate set her hands on her hips, not budging an inch even when very close facsimiles of Captain America and Iron Man walked closer. "Where and when are we?"

Tommy raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean, when?"

"The technology is clearly modern day," Kate replied, indicating the large flat-screen TV on one wall. "However, this Cap? Is definitely younger than ours." Okay. Wow. That was true. That must have been the difference he hadn't quite been able to pinpoint.

"Your Cap? This sounds like we really need a long, serious discussion." The Tony before them raised his eyebrows in a quizzical manner. "This is New York, 2012, the newly renamed Avengers Tower and preliminary headquarters of said group."

"Avengers Tower? Bullshit. Avengers headquarters is the mansion." Not even he could forget the memorial garden quite that easily.

Kate raised her hand, making him pause. "See, here we have a disagreement," she said, her voice calm, though when she lowered her hand to place it on Tommy's arm, he could feel the slightest of trembles. "I'd agree with the time and place, but as stated, the Avengers we know reside in a mansion."

"Yeah, well, we've never had a mansion. Not that we've had a team for that long, either."

"Brilliant." Kate sighed. "Let's see. I don't suppose there's any way I can prove to you that we're friendlies?"

"Well, you could start by offering an explanation as to why three of you have driver's licenses that are either genuine or very, very clever fakes, yet according to my computer, none of you legally exist."

Tommy felt his stomach dropping. "What the hell?"

"As I thought." Kate's hand grasped onto Tommy's arm, her grip the only indication she wasn't perfectly calm. "And if I told you we just might be from an alternate universe?"

The Cap frowned. "I'm pretty sure that's not possible."

"Well, I don't know." To think that Stark of all people would come to their rescue. "Theoretically, there's no reason why alternate universes couldn't exist. However, it's going to take a little more than that to prove that you actually came from one instead of having some really freaky teleportation tech and fake identities."

"You said the team hasn't been together long." Which, what the hell, how could that even be possible? "Do the Avengers still include Hawkeye, Thor, and Black Widow?"

"Provisionally." Tony's eyebrows flew up high. "Though I'm pretty sure two of their code names have never been available to the general public."

"Good thing we're not members of the general public, then." Kate's lips twitched. "Clint's middle name is Francis, Thor's cover name was Daniel Blake, and Natasha is a natural redhead."

"Wait, what?" Tommy blinked. "When the hell did you find out that last bit, and why wasn't I invited?"

"Idiot. Clint told me, just in case I'd some day have to prove that I'm an insider." Kate's eyes hadn't wavered from the weird Cap and Tony. "Well?"

"JARVIS?" Tony's eyes were similarly locked on Kate, while Cap at his side was looking between each of them in bewilderment. "Confirmation?"

"Clinton Francis Barton is the name on record in his SHIELD files," a voice with a smooth British accent came out from… somewhere. Tommy certainly couldn't see any obvious speakers. "Similarly, the alien entity known as Thor did use the name Daniel Blake briefly, though this was only on one occasion and should not have been information available to anyone but a few SHIELD employees and those involved in the incident itself. As to the last, sir, you should know a gentleman computer never tells."

"Sassy, JARVIS." Tony seemed to think for a minute. "Okay, I'll count that as a possibility. Don't blow anything else up, and we might not consider you hostiles for now. And, by the way, I really, really want to know how you blew up that door, aside from the whole bit with you surpassing the highest human speeds on record by several times."

"Wait, several times?" That… didn't sound good. "That can't be true. I mean, yeah, I'm the fastest, but not several times faster than, say, Quicksilver."

"I'll just assume you are not speaking about the element here and add that to the list of topics for discussion."

"You know, Kate," Tommy said with a low voice just as he heard Teddy murmur something behind them on the bed, thank God Teddy was waking up, "I think we are very, very far from home."

She didn't respond, but the grip on his arm turned almost painful, now.

*

"So, let me get this straight." Kate leaned back on the couch, her second slice of pizza in hand, not looking over where Tommy was decimating an entire pizza with obvious gusto. Everyone had agreed it would not do to have the actual discussion until everyone was back to consciousness, and by the time Billy had finally started to stir, they had managed to arrange for the arrival of both a large stack of pizzas and a rather bewildered Bruce Banner. "In this world, Avengers haven't existed at all until earlier this year?"

"Well, yes. The initiative was officially scrapped before it was ever put into action, but with the alien attack and Loki causing havoc back in May, Fury decided it was for the best to call us together." Tony — this Tony — paused. "Wait. You don't even know who Fury even is, do you?"

"Nicholas Fury," Billy murmured from where he was curled up next to Teddy. Though he was awake now, he still appeared exhausted, which obviously meant Teddy was sick with worry and trying not to show it. "Director of SHIELD, the Strategic Homeland Intelligence, Enforcement and Logistics Division."

"And this is why he's the nerdy brother," Tommy announced, pausing enough in his eating to jab a finger in Billy's direction.

"Right." Captain — Steve, he had insisted, after the initial awkwardness — looked slightly uncomfortable. "So… where you come from, Avengers have been around longer than that?"

"Let's put it this way," Teddy said. "Tommy and Billy's parents met on the team. Oh, and Tony Stark became Iron Man after he got injured in Vietnam."

"Wait, Vietnam?" Tony's eyes widened in an almost comical fashion. "What the hell? I hadn't even been born back then!"

"Yes, well, that seems to be one of the main differences." Kate pointed at Steve with her slice. "Also, our Captain got defrosted ages ago."

"Well, from what you've told us so far, you either actually have inside info on us or you're the best damn spies that ever spied." Tony leaned back, looking at them with narrowed eyes. "I think I'll need a bit more of an explanation for that than us having been around longer in your world. I just can't believe there's any kind of world where Hawkass would release his embarrassing middle name to the general public."

"Right. About that." Kate drew a deep breath. "In our world… we are Avengers. Were. Are. Will be. It's… complicated."

"What?" Cap frowned, and that was pure concern right there. "But… you are just children!"

"Not quite. Even the twins are seventeen, and they're the youngest of us." Teddy shifted a bit, but his arm remained secure around Billy. "We… were known as the Young Avengers, initially. We acted on our own, and the adults didn't exactly approve, but we did manage to solve some situations."

"A bit over a year ago, a lot happened," Kate added, looking down. "We… lost half of our team, some permanently. We haven't done any hero stuff since then, but our Cap decided they'd accept us as Avengers. That is, if we got back to it."

"They put up statues of our friends," Billy said, his voice little more than a whisper. "In the Avengers memorial garden."

"…I'm sorry." And, if this Steve Rogers was anything like theirs, he actually was. "So, I'm assuming you are not regular teenagers, then? I mean, judging by you being Avengers and the… speed."

"Speed's my name." Tommy flashed a grin. "Literally. That's my codename."

"Oh, we're perfectly normal. Just because I have better aim than most and these three aren't baseline humans doesn't mean we're not normal." Kate sighed. "And, as I said, we hadn't even done any hero stuff in a while. There shouldn't be any reason why we're here."

"That's probably my fault." As Teddy tried to protest, Billy cut him out. "No, Tee, I actually mean it. This isn't some form of self-pity or anything; I just genuinely think this is most likely my doing."

"Do you remember something, then?" Banner spoke up at last, his tone soft but eyes sharp behind his glasses. "I think you all said you can't remember anything?"

"Nothing much, anyway. I know I'd been at the range and we were all walking home together, which explains why I had my bow." Which she really, really needed back in her hands. "Unless Billy remembers something more?"

"Just… a bit." Billy shifted, facing the adults, now, though he still didn't move anywhere from Teddy's embrace. "We… were attacked. By someone, I'm not sure who, but I do remember they weren't just regular thugs or whatever."

"I remember that too," Teddy said, his voice low. "It's all pretty vague, but I remember thinking we couldn't fight. There were civilians around, and besides we were out of costume."

"So I tried to take us away," Billy added. "I felt like something wasn't right, but I figured it was just because I hadn't used a lot of power in a while. All I wanted to do was take us home, but…"

"But then you woke up here." Banner nodded. "Now. Could I maybe ask exactly how you were hoping of taking you home?"

"Uh. Right." Billy blinked. "I… I have magic. Or, um, something like that, anyway. It does what I want it to do, most of the time."

"I'm guessing you ending up here isn't one of those 'most of the time' scenarios." Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose as though warding off a headache. It was weird, the way he looked almost exactly like the Tony they knew, yet some tiny details were different. "I would say something about how there is no such thing as magic, but I had Norse gods on my balcony this summer so I concede there might be more to this world than I have personally had experience with."

"So… you used a spell of some sort to take you home, and instead you ended up here?" Cap frowned. Kate could almost see the gears turning in his head while he tried to make everything make sense in his head.

"So it seems." Billy made a face, leaning further into Teddy. "I just wanted to take us home… and next thing I know, I'm here." He lifted his hand, looking at it as though expecting something to happen. "And now, I can't make my magic work at all."

"What?" Tommy's head whipped around faster than Kate could see. "No magic?"

"I can't feel it, at least." Billy clenched his hand. "At first I thought it was just because I was so tired from whatever it is I did, but… it doesn't feel like I can't use it right now. It's just… it's not there."

"How is that possible?" Teddy frowned.

"Honestly, I don't know." Billy sighed. "I mean, our powers are obviously still here, as Tommy demonstrated. Something's going on here, but I have no idea what."

"Yeah, well, worst case scenario, you managed to bring us to a world where your kind of magic doesn't exist." As they turned to look at Tommy in barely contained horror, he shrugged. "What? It'd be the rational explanation."

"Well, in any case, it is clear you are here, and apparently stuck here for the time being if you used this magic thing to come here." At least they could always count on Tony to grasp the realities of the situation quickly, even if Kate wasn't always happy with his solutions. "My vote is that right now, we all get to bed before magic boy here passes out again, and if we have any luck we'll all wake up tomorrow and realize we had a really, really weird dream."

"Agreed." Cap nodded. "Whatever has happened, we have a better chance of solving the situation after a good night's sleep."

"Wait, that's it?" Teddy blinked. "Okay kids, off to bed with you, we'll talk more in the morning?"

"Eh, seems like the best solution to me." Tony shrugged. "Frankly, I'm still far from convinced about your magic world-hopping story, but you seem as confused about the situation as we are, and if you were going to kill us or whatever you probably would have done so already, what with mister super speed there. So, yeah, a good night's sleep and hopefully more level heads wouldn't hurt in trying to figure out what to do next."

"Right." There was some doubt in Teddy's voice, but it didn't seem like he was going to argue openly. "Good, then. Billy definitely needs the sleep."

"Yeah, looks like he's going to keel over any moment now." Tony shrugged. "JARVIS? Show them to some vacant rooms, will you? And if they want to raid the kitchen, make sure to order replacements."

"Very well, sir." The British voice that had confirmed her factoids earlier was back. "However, as you may remember, there are only three prepared rooms vacant at the moment, with one of them lacking a door. Will this be a problem?"

"Well, Tommy's the one that broke the door, I'm sure he can spend the night without one." Kate ignored any errant murmurs from him. She knew perfectly well he'd be knocking at her door sooner or later. "And three rooms will be more than enough, thank you."

"Ah, a reasonable young lady. I'm absolutely delighted." Tony gave her a smirk. "Now, I'm afraid I'll have to concentrate on finding a way to tell my ever so lovely girlfriend that I apparently got four kids without telling her."

"I would point out that we're not kids, but since you're obviously just being condescending to annoy us for your own amusement, I suppose it'd be a wasted effort." She glanced to Teddy, who had stood and was picking the almost-asleep Billy into his arms, with Tommy trying his best not to let his worry show. "Do you think you can get him to bed between the two of you? There's still something I want to clear up."

"Sure." Teddy settled Billy into his arms, then nudged the slightly more reluctant Tommy. "Come on, your little brother needs his sleep."

Tommy looked as though he were about to protest, but complied anyway. Kate waited until they were all out of the room, hopefully out of earshot as well, before standing up and facing the three men.

"I get that you don't trust us or our story," she said, receiving an eye roll from Tony and wary nods from the other two. "I wouldn't trust us either in your position. Also, like it or not, we do not entirely trust you. All this is merely sensible. As a team leader I know that tactical decisions are only as good as the intelligence they're based on, and at the moment neither party has as much data as they'd prefer."

"Yeah, okay. We can't trust you because we don't know what's going on, you can't trust us for the same reason. That much is clear, and frankly didn't need to be said. Can we get to the point?" Of course it was Tony being impatient.

"I merely thought there is some information that would be good for you to know." She straightened a bit, her eyes flicking between each of them, and for the first time in a long time she truly felt like Hawkeye instead of just Kate. "My team is, at the moment, vulnerable. We do not know where we are or what exactly happened, and our heavy hitter is out of commission. Nevertheless, before you get any ideas about eliminating a possible threat, you should know some things." It still didn't feel right, practically threatening Captain America of all people, but then she knew all too well not even the Avengers always had their best interests at heart. Certainly not if they thought there was some other gain to be made. "We're not just a team, we're a family, and we stick together. If you try to hurt my team, I will stop you, and believe me, I have faced down threats more frightening than the entire team of Avengers before."

"Forgive me if I'm wrong," Banner adjusted his glasses, "but you just said your heavy hitter is out. Not to doubt your word or the abilities of the rest of your team, especially after what I heard about the door, but in the highly unlikely scenario that we tried to harm you, what exactly would you do to us?"

"Pray that you don't find out." She shook her head. "In all seriousness, they can all take care of themselves, not that I won't get creative if you try to disprove that. Granted, Billy is vulnerable right now, but he's also the one you never, ever want to threaten. Tommy is very protective of his brother, and even aside from exploding objects, the one you should truly be afraid of is Teddy." She let her eyes linger on the doctor in particular. "I know he seems like a big ball of fluff and sunshine, but he isn't called Hulkling for nothing."

Banner seemed taken aback, as was to be expected, but then nodded in understanding. "Good thing we aren't inclined to harm anyone except bad guys."

"Indeed. As long as you do not attack us, you are safe here." Cap gave her a serious look. "You have my word for that."

"That's good to hear. But, if you do go back on your word, you will find that being a baseline human does not mean I'm any less dangerous than the rest of my team." She narrowed her eyes, just enough to make her point clear. "You have Hawkeye's word for that."

With that, she turned and followed the boys, ignoring the obvious shock of these strange Avengers.


	3. Differences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teddy talks with his sort-of counterpart, and Tony's solution to the problem is surprising, though not necessarily unpleasant. Steve, however, stubbornly refuses to get embarrassed, at least until the big guns come out.

It was strange, being so high up that even the sounds of traffic didn't reach them anymore, the silence broken only by the soft rhythm of Billy breathing at his side.

Teddy stared up at the ceiling, trying to calm himself enough to fall asleep again and failing. He wasn't tired, couldn't convince himself he was even with the sky darkening behind the window as much as it ever darkened in New York. Even after hours of lying in bed his body felt ready for a fight, prepared to spring to action at the slightest hint of a threat. He wasn't sure if he was trying to protect Billy or just too wired up from the strange experience, but sleep was not about to come.

Billy didn't seem to have the same problem. He'd barely stayed awake long enough to get out of his clothes and fall into bed, asleep before his head even hit the pillow. It had fallen to Teddy to tuck him in properly, a duty he had been all too happy to fulfill. Now, though, he was lying alone in the darkness, wishing he'd had Billy for actual company and feeling selfish for such wishes. No matter what had actually happened, it was obvious it had worn Billy out completely, and he needed all the rest he could get. Hopefully, exhaustion was all that was wrong with him. Hopefully.

Billy made a small sound in his sleep, turning towards Teddy, who smiled. Even in his sleep, Billy managed to be adorable. He truly was incredibly lucky to have a boyfriend like this.

Sighing, he sat up on the bed, careful not to disturb Billy. It was no use lying here, pretending to sleep while listening for the smallest sounds. With any luck, getting on his feet for a moment would distract him enough that he might be able to get to sleep later. After all, he couldn't very well take care of Billy if he was the one exhausted tomorrow.

He did hesitate for a moment about leaving Billy alone in such a strange place. However, he could do little else but trust their hosts to actually keep them safe, and waking Billy to take him along was completely out of the question. Nevertheless, when looking for his t-shirt, he found himself picking up Billy's instead. It was too small for him to wear without shifting, of course, but as he drew it over his now slightly smaller frame, the familiar scent reassured the part of his brain that could not conceive of facing this strange place without Billy.

The corridor was empty, but the lights turned on to follow him as he walked along it, an eerie glow from somewhere in the ceiling as the actual lights were hidden from sight. It made him feel like he were in a haunted house, looking over his shoulder and seeing the lights right behind him turning off as he passed them. That would definitely take some getting used to.

Assuming they were here long enough to get used to it. He certainly hoped not.

"JARVIS?" he asked, trying to figure out where to look for the computer that apparently was watching. It felt rather awkward speaking to someone who wasn't there. "How do I get to the kitchen?"

"Let me show you the way, Master Theodore." And yeah, nothing creepy about it apparently having picked up his name from somewhere. "Just get into the elevator and I will take you to the correct floor, then follow the lights."

"Thanks." He paused. "Uh. Just Teddy is fine."

"As you wish, Master Teddy." Not quite what he'd meant, but it was better at least.

The elevator doors opened automatically as he approached them, just like they had earlier when they'd been heading to the living room. The same way the elevator moved without his needing to ask, smooth and silent, the only sign of his having reached the correct floor being the quiet hiss as the doors slid open again. As soon as he stepped out, lights lit up, leading him further.

"This is really creepy," he murmured to himself as he reached the kitchen doorway, only belatedly realizing JARVIS might take it as an invitation to conversation. To his surprise, though, the voice that answered him was not British or coming from an undisclosed location.

"I'd ask what you're referring to, but I think I can guess." Doctor Banner was leaning against the kitchen counter, cradling a large mug in his hands. "JARVIS is rather indispensable in running a place this size, but sometimes things happening without any active involvement gets a little disconcerting."

"Right." Teddy managed a smile that was only slightly awkward. So he hoped, at least. "Sorry, I didn't realize anyone was going to be here at this hour."

"One of the weirder realities of the place. Aside from agreed-upon mealtimes, it's much easier to run into someone in the kitchen at night than during the day." Banner shrugged. "I keep weird hours sometimes, Steve doesn't need much sleep, and Tony actually seems to prefer doing his more intense design sessions at night."

"Duly noted." Teddy glanced around, taking in the layout of the kitchen. "Mind if I peek in the fridge? I couldn't sleep."

"Be my guest." Banner waved his hand in the direction of the fridge. "Don't mind me, I'm just taking a tea break."

"Right." He opened the fridge, finding it full of just about anything he could have thought of. Idly wondering how much of that was actually eaten before it went bad, he picked out ingredients for a sandwich. He hadn't been in the mood for pizza earlier, more concerned about Billy than eating, but now hunger was crawling in.

"So your team leader said something interesting." The sudden comment almost startled him. "She said you are known as Hulkling."

"Ah, yeah." He glanced at Banner over his shoulder. "That's my codename." Not that he had heard it in a while.

"Well. You might understand I'm somewhat… curious about that." Banner was looking at him over his glasses, the gaze sharp though not in an unfriendly manner.

"There's no actual connection between me and our Hulk, if that's what you were wondering." He tried to focus on making the sandwich, though it was hard to ignore the gaze. Maybe he should make one for when Billy woke up, too; he hadn't eaten much of the pizza, either. "I got named that because I turn big and green and strong, too."

"And that's what you call no connection?"

"Well, there was no radiation or strange experiments involved with me." He shrugged, still feeling a bit awkward. "I've only ever hulked out — that is, grown even bigger and gotten too angry to control myself — when Billy's been threatened." Such as that battle with Kang, what seemed like a lifetime ago. He never wanted to experience such deep terror ever again.

"I see." Banner was quiet for a moment. Then, just as Teddy was almost convinced he'd have no more questions, he spoke up again. "Is there a particular reason why you go big and green, considering that your shapeshifting is apparently somewhat more versatile than that?"

Teddy stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"I know people tend to forget I'm one of the smart guys too, but really, I'm not blind." He didn't sound offended, though, but almost amused instead. "That t-shirt, your boyfriend was wearing it earlier, right? Except you're considerably bigger than him. The only way it could fit you like that is if the shirt got bigger or you got smaller, and since we've already established you can turn big, it's not altogether unreasonable to imagine you'd turn smaller as well."

"Did Kate tell you he's my boyfriend?" Which was absolutely not the point, but.

"You mean, I'd need someone telling me after your behavior earlier?" Banner shook his head. "You're wearing his shirt, meaning you were likely in the same room or it wouldn't have been as easy for you to pick up before heading here. There were three rooms available, each with a single big bed. The white-haired one — Tommy, right? — is his brother; the only logical reason you would be sharing with him instead is if you're his boyfriend." There was another pause, shorter this time. "That, and most people don't go wearing other people's clothes unless they are close. Certainly not when it would take extra effort to make it fit."

"Busted, I guess." And yet, he couldn't help the smile creeping on his face. "Yeah, Billy's my boyfriend. And yes, there's a reason for the big and green." He turned to look at the doctor. "Doctor Banner… have you ever heard of the Skrulls?"

"Just Bruce is fine. And I can't say I have."

"Right. Bruce." Because being on a first name basis with the Hulk was totally normal. Why wouldn't it have been normal? He was an Avenger, after all. Calm down, Teddy. "Where I come from, they are an alien race. Their true form is green and reptilian, but they have truly astounding shapeshifting abilities. Most of them are hostile to humans, but a few of them are exceptions." He paused. "My mother was one of those exceptions." Both of them had been.

"So, you're half-alien?" Well, it was close enough. "That is certainly… interesting."

"I'd say that." Teddy managed a smile. "I'm… well. Even in my human-like form, I'm stronger and tougher than any humans. My Skrull form is even stronger and more resistant to damage. Not quite as destructive as the Hulk, but I can break stuff pretty efficiently if I need to, too."

"I presume you stay in control of yourself?"

"Yeah." He breathed in deep. "It's… it's just me, I just look different. For me, it's no different than changing my eye color or height." And yes, he was aware those weren't quite normal things for most people, but that wasn't the point he was trying to make here. "There are still people who get scared of me like that. Aside from the similarity to Hulk, well, Skrulls don't exactly have the most stellar reputation over there, either, and the people who don't draw the connection to either one are just going to be terrified of the huge green guy with claws and scales."

"Your team accepts you, though." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah, they do." Now, his smile came easier. "Billy's never been afraid of me in any form. He's… he's a treasure to me."

"Finding someone like that always is." There was a note of wistfulness to Banner's — no, Bruce's — voice, now. "Before I joined the team… even Natasha was afraid of me. Well. Of the other guy, really."

"That's… that's really something." But then, as difficult as it was to imagine Black Widow being afraid of anything at all, he supposed facing Hulk could do that. "How did you end up here anyway?" Because he certainly couldn't imagine joining a team of people who treated him like he was something dangerous.

"Well, I guess they changed their minds somewhat when they actually saw the other guy in control during the battle." Bruce chuckled, then, a surprising sound after the conversation they'd had. "Mostly, though, it was Tony."

"Iron Man? What'd he do?" Because if he was anything like their Tony Stark, a genius in interpersonal relationships he was not.

"Basically? Congratulated me for my wonderful tendency to turn into a giant green rage monster, literally prodded me with a stick, and believed against all odds I would return to join the battle even when everyone else was convinced I'd bailed." Bruce smiled into his tea cup. "It's somehow much easier to believe in yourself when someone else does, too. And much easier not to be a monster when you're not treated as one."

"I bet it is." Teddy chuckled faintly. "I think in our little group Kate's the only one who can't readily identify with that."

"Oh?" Bruce's eyebrows rose. "I understand that for you, if these Skrulls aren't popular, but how is that relevant to the twins?"

"Tommy was pretty much a delinquent when we met him. He's still got that bad boy vibe, but I have the feeling that if we hadn't been the ones to find him and convince him to join, he'd have been on the fast lane to villainy at the first opportunity he got." Like, say, blowing up that nightmarish facility… and everyone in it. "And Billy… well. He takes after his mother, and since she was involved in a pretty bad incident years ago, there are people who think he's going to follow right in her footsteps." Such as Tony. Not that he was about to say that.

"I see." Bruce nodded thoughtfully. "It must have been difficult to be accepted as a hero with that kind of a background."

"Hard to get accepted?" Teddy couldn't help the derisive snort that escaped him as he started cleaning up the traces of his sandwich construction. "Try more along the lines of childhood heroes trying to either lock him up or just plain kill him, and you'll be closer." He shook his head. "We more or less convinced them to leave us alone… but then, we also haven't done any hero stuff since then."

"Because you are afraid of the reactions?"

"No. Because we lost two of our friends, and Billy blamed himself." He got the last of the ingredients in the fridge, setting his sandwich on a plate and picking it up. "Now, would you excuse me? I should probably get back to him."

"By all means." And yet, he felt eyes following him the whole way out of the kitchen.

However, he also heard the quiet voice asking JARVIS not to inform anyone else about the contents of their conversation.

*

Pepper, Tony had decided, was going to kill him.

She hadn't exactly said that, not in as many words, but the sentiment had certainly been clear when he'd called her to inform her that he had taken in a few apparently interdimensional runaways. He could only hope she would have calmed down enough to reconsider by the time she actually got back to New York; it would have been quite pitiful for him to survive terrorists, supervillains and aliens just to get done in by his beloved girlfriend.

Of course, all this was mere speculation, and Pepper really shouldn't have been the focus of his attention right now. Instead, his time would have been much better spent studying the four teens currently invading the kitchen, busy eating breakfast. Three of them seemed perfectly awake, and even the most tired one, Billy if he recalled right, was more alert than he had been the night before. The big blond kid was fussing about him like a worried mother hen, though from the way his hand lingered sometimes when he reached out to touch him the concern was not exactly familial in nature. Well. That was not exactly surprising, given the way they had acted the night before, but it would nevertheless be interesting to see Cap's reaction when he figured it out. If he figured it out.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Cap finally said, standing in the doorway to Tony's right. How he could look so alert and properly put together so early in the morning, Tony had no idea. It was entirely unfair how his hair wasn't at all mussed from sleep and how the white t-shirt he wore was stretched over all those tons of muscle. Absolutely unfair. "However, I think we should now discuss what we are to do."

"That would be for the best, yes." There was a similar feel in the girl's eyes, that of a leader, eyeing them with calculation that Tony couldn't bring himself to call a bad thing. It was the job of a leader to be always calculating the odds, working for the best outcome.

"Tony says he's had JARVIS work all night, trying to confirm your identities." Steve glanced at Tony for confirmation, then continued at his nod. "However, the search has not turned up anything."

The kids flinched, not that he could blame them. If their story had any truth to it, that was all the confirmation they needed that they were, indeed, very far from home. "So, what are we going to do?" asked Billy. He was trying to look brave and all, but his hand was trembling slightly where it clasped his cup. Though that might have just been some lingering exhaustion, who was Tony to tell.

"Fortunately, Tony has offered a hopefully temporary solution." Steve glanced at him. "Tony?"

Okay. His turn to speak. "So. While obviously I can't either disprove or confirm your story, the fact remains that you somehow made your way into the tower, right past my security, and the identities you gave us are either entirely fake or not consistent with this reality." And damn if he knew which option was the more worrying one. "Now, because I don't think it'd be a good idea for anyone to set you free on our poor unsuspecting city and leave you to your own devices, and Captain Goodness here would frown if I tried to actually lock you up, the remaining option is to have you stay here until we figure out what exactly is going on."

"Well, that's pretty grand of you." Hey, he could detect sarcasm, still. He hadn't gone quite that soft and fluffy yet, thanks.

"I know, I'm just a regular philanthropist." Which, yeas, was actually true, but that was neither here nor there. "However. If you're going to be roaming around the place, we need to set some ground rules first."

"Oooh, me first, me first!" The white-haired twin — Tommy? Tony was pretty sure it was Tommy — was waving his hand in the air. "How about you don't treat us like we're fucking four years old?"

"I'm pretty sure you know not to go sticking things in the electric sockets even without us telling you not to," Steve sighed. Well, it was good to know he had some support here at least. "However, we do need to figure out how things are to work."

"So, the basic gist of it is this." Tony crossed his arms. "I'm sure none of us want SHIELD to figure out we've got interdimensional guests hanging around. Unfortunately, that means that you can't leave the area designated to Avengers. If they saw you coming from up here, you can bet your ass Fury would be on the phone demanding an explanation for my strange guests within the hour."

"He actually monitors who you have in your own house?"

"Enough so that he would take notice of any unexpected additions to the household, I'm sure." Tony shrugged. "I know it's restrictive, but I'm sure you'll survive. There's food and entertainment available, and any special needs you have, just ask JARVIS."

"So you want us to stay here for… however long it takes for us to clear up the situation?" The other twin seemed vaguely uncomfortable, though it might have been just the fact that he was clearly pale and exhausted, leaning against his boyfriend.

"Well, it's not like you've got anywhere else to go, is it?" Steve threw him a sharp look, for his bluntness probably, but Tony ignored it. It was only the truth, and they knew it as well as he did. "So, since you claim to be Avengers and Cap's got the world's worst savior complex, you're going to stay here. Unless you try to sneak in and cut our throats while we sleep, that is."

"Tony said he'd have more rooms added," Steve cut in, probably before he could say something even more insensitive or some shit like that. "The ones you stayed at last night were designed for other people, after all. So, we're going to have another floor turned into living quarters, so you can have your own rooms."

"Isn't that a bit excessive?" Kate raised her eyebrows. "I mean, we're all hoping our stay here is temporary and as brief as possible."

Tony waved his hand. "Eh. We'll find some use for them when you're gone, I'm sure. Besides, I'm just going to reclaim one of the floors that suffered damages during the attack on the city. It's not in use at the moment anyway, so it's not like I'm throwing people out of there."

"Hey, if you're offering, I'm not going to say no." Tommy shrugged. "If we're going to be cooped up in here, the least we can ask for is that we're comfortable."

"I like your style." Tony grinned and pointed a finger at him, ignoring Steve's slight frown. Come on, grandpa, it wasn't being demanding or greedy to accept a generous offer. "You can hopefully spend a few nights where you've been this far; money can make people work fast, but there's only so fast office floors can be converted in the living quarters. In the meantime you can pass your time with telling JARVIS what kind of rooms you'd like. Hell if I'm going to be spending my time trying to think up dream rooms for a bunch of kids."

"Still not kids, thanks. But we'll be sure to make demands." Oh, he definitely liked this kid's style.

"So, while I've already ordered a crew to work on the renovations, there are some things that need to be settled first." Such as how red Steve could turn without exploding. "Such as, how many rooms would you prefer to have?"

"Three," said Kate, at the same time as Tommy said, "Two." At her unimpressed gaze, he shrugged. "Okay, fine. Three."

"Thought so." He glanced at Billy and Teddy, unconcerned about Cap's raised eyebrows. "You two will be sharing, then?"

"Ah… yes. Yes, if possible." There was a slight tinge of pink to Billy's cheeks, and he couldn't quite look at Tony. That might have been because doing so would have required looking almost directly at Steve right next to him.

"You're sharing a room?"

"Yes. Yes, we are." He had to give it to the kid, Teddy didn't even flinch as he looked steadily at Steve, his hand making its way to Billy's shoulder. "Is there a problem with that?"

"Should there be?" Damn. Steve didn't even look vaguely pink. "From what my studies with JARVIS have told me, there is nothing strange about that, nowadays." Wow. He'd known Steve was pretty well adapted to the modern day, but this was better than he had expected.

"I'd hope not," Billy murmured into his drink. "We've been together longer than your team." A small shudder ran through him, not that Tony could blame him. If that thing about his parents meeting on the team was true, it was probably pretty hard to try to reconcile himself with a reality where that couldn't have been even possible.

Speaking of which. "Hey, you said your parents were Avengers, right?" At least he was pretty sure that had come up in the conversation at some point. "It's not anyone we know, is it?" …Dark eyes and messy black hair, and the twins actually had a hint of a stubble that was pretty impressive for someone still in high school after one morning of not shaving. Crap. He was not looking forward to explaining this to Pepper.

"I don't think so." Well, that was a relief. "Frankly, I'm starting to wonder if our parents even exist here."

"Why'd you think so?"

"Because of something Tommy said." Billy took a sip before leveling him a steady gaze. "He said that according to you, he's several times faster than the fastest human speeds on record. Which means you have absolutely no record of our uncle."

"Well, to be fair, we have knowledge of very few superhuman entities in general." Which was a constant disappointment, given how hard he was working to break into SHIELD's records of such. He refused to believe there weren't any, he just hadn't dug in deep enough.

"Yeah, we figured that much." The Tommy kid could at least eat at a respectable pace, that much Tony was going to admit. "Say. Do you even know what mutants are?"

"I'm going to assume you don't mean things like adult tolerance to milk."

"Yeah, not quite." Teddy sighed. "That alone confirms that this is nothing like our world."

"You mean, besides the fact that your world has enjoyed my glorious presence so much longer." Which meant he had to be an old geezer over there. Eugh. "So, care to enlighten us ignorant folks?"

"Mutants are humans with an active X-gene." Thanks, Miss Informative, that was so very helpful. "It's inherited through the paternal line, and means they have various mutations. Some are physical changes, while most only manifest themselves as various, well, it's easiest to call them superpowers. Examples would be the ability to function at superhuman speeds," she pointed at Tommy, who grinned around a piece of toast, "or controlling forces such as electricity and magic." This time, she indicated Billy.

"In our world, it'd be impossible for anyone not to know about mutants." Billy's tone was quiet. "There — there used to be millions of us, worldwide. Highest estimate was thirty million."

"Used to be?" Steve frowned. "Does that mean there aren't anymore?"

"Yeah." Billy bit his lip. "There — there was a catastrophe, more or less. Two, in fact. First, the biggest mutant community on Earth was pretty much wiped out, reducing our population to less than half… and then, in another incident, most of us either died or lost their powers." He seemed exceedingly uncomfortable. Tony had to wonder if he'd lost someone close in that event.

"There have been some new mutants since then, but not many." Teddy's hand on Billy's shoulder tightened momentarily. "Most estimates settle somewhere less than a thousand in total."

"Less than a thousand?" It was a good thing Tony had finished his cup of coffee earlier; he might have dropped it now if he'd still had in his hands. "Thirty million to a couple of hundreds? That's — that's a fucking genocide!"

"Yeah, we know." Even Tommy turned serious now, something Tony got the feeling wasn't all that common. "Our uncle lost his powers and our mother went missing. 'S also why Billy and I were raised in different families." Well, that explained the different surnames on their IDs, aside from the fact that Tommy's was so obviously fake.

"We've never had something like that." Steve paused and winced. "Well. What I mean is, we've never had a big mutant population. We didn't when I went under, and I hope I'd have come across information on something like that."

"Frankly, if we'd come across an Earth with no genocides or wars whatsoever, I'd be wondering if the whole species had been replaced by pod people." Tommy snorted. "But, yeah. I don't know if this place has no mutants whatsoever or if they're just underground. I mean, in our world, mutants were still a pretty recent thing, and it seems like this world is behind on a lot of other things, too."

"Recent thing?" Tony echoed. "I'm going to assume it's been around a few decades at least, if your parents were mutants."

"Not much longer than that." Billy sighed. "Aside from some truly freak cases who might not qualify as human at all, the earliest known mutant is from the 19th century or so, and he's a total exception to every rule. On a more general level, our grandfather's one of the earliest known mutants, and he was born after Cap."

"After me?" Aw, Steve was always cute when he got flustered about his little age crisis. "That's — but that is —"

"Entirely reasonable," Tony finished. "I mean, let's face it, Cap, you've been around a while." He paused. "JARVIS? Keep an eye out for anything that might point towards mutants becoming more widespread around here, will you?" As well as looking through the records for any earlier incidents, but he supposed that went without saying. His AI was truly intelligent like that.

"As you wish, Sir. Is there anything in particular you would like me to look into?"

Tony glanced at the kids. "Anything that might help with figuring out if, you know, your families exist here, too?"

Billy seemed to hesitate. When he spoke, though, his voice was steady if quiet. "You have access to lists of Holocaust victims or survivors, right?"

"To what extent they exist, yes." Tony wasn't sure exactly when he had programmed JARVIS to sound almost gentle. "Any name or place in particular you would like me to look into?"

"Max Eisenhardt. Auschwitz-Birkenau." Well. Crap. They had said their grandfather had been born after Cap.

That was still more than old enough to have been born before the war.

"Very well. I will pay special attention to such a name. And, perhaps, any individuals with faster than average speed?" This? This was why JARVIS was the best.

"Right. Thanks." Billy leaned lightly into Teddy's touch. "Tee? I'm still tired."

"I know." The bigger boy gently gathered him closer. "How about you get some more sleep?"

"In the meantime, you two can help me out." Tony pointed at Kate and Tommy. See, he wasn't an absolute idiot in social situations. "I don't care if you agree or not, but the four of you need clean clothes. And since I can't exactly send you off on a shopping trip, you two can consult with JARVIS so he knows what to order. Also, anything else you might need. However cute they may be, I'm totally not letting the lovebirds raid my condom drawer."

Well, look at that. It seemed Cap was actually capable of blushing, still.


	4. Chores

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate and Tommy get clothes, and Tony gets information. Steve worries about everyone, because that's what Steve does, while Bruce talks with the other half of the interplanetary super couple.

"At least the Internet is still the same, no matter what." Kate's fingers flew over the keyboard with almost hypnotizing grace. Tommy had always appreciated precise, fast movements. "So. Clothes."

"Yeah." Tommy nodded. "Tony said he can have them delivered today, so we'll just need to pick what we want."

"Billy's the same size as you, and I can more or less estimate Teddy's size, at least close enough that he can adjust." At his questioning glance, Kate rolled her eyes. "Don't be childish. I did get us our second uniforms, you know."

"Right, right. Just starting to wonder if I should worry you're going to ruin my baby brother's happiness by snatching away his favorite thing in the whole world."

"Please. Like Teddy'd even want me, in the unlikely case I was interested in him." Kate's lips twitched. "Too much boobs."

"Well, I don't know. I quite like the boob part." He gave her a grin. "Obviously, I have better taste than him."

She snorted. "Oh, I'm well aware that you do." On the screen, she was going through the wares of some store, marking off items to be ordered. "You've certainly shown it often enough."

"You like my appreciation, don't lie." He reached a hand to play with a lock of her hair. "Or maybe you just like me."

"So now you're accusing me of being the one with bad taste?" And yet, she was smiling. Obviously, she was not entirely sincere in her snappy words.

"Ah, sorry. Am I interrupting something?" The voice from the doorway made them both turn their heads. "I mean, I can come back later if you want to be sappy in peace."

"Don't worry, Tommy's made it very clear he has no kind of positive emotions whatsoever, so it's entirely impossible for us to be sappy." Kate quirked her eyebrows at Tony. "Of course, it all depends on whether you actually had some reason to interrupt while we're conducting the ever important task of clothes shopping." Because Kate was all about spending money. Not. It was kind of refreshing, how she'd managed to turn out like that despite her background.

"Just some things I wanted to talk about." Tony walked into the room. "See, JARVIS's old search of your names didn't bring any results, nor has he been able to get any hits so far by searching for your faces. However, the mention of a grandfather earlier gave me an idea."

"And what would that idea be?" He sure hoped it didn't involve any kind of criminal registries or they'd be screwed. After all, they were supposed to be convincing these people they were the good guys.

"I asked him to search for people with the same surnames." Tony leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. "So far, we haven't been able to narrow down any meaningful hits from all the Shepherds, nor do there seem to be any obviously relevant Altmans. However, going with the info we had from your papers, JARVIS was indeed able to hunt down something."

Kate tensed; Tommy knew that without even looking. "And what's that?"

"A family called Kaplan, at the address we expected. Two sons, both notably younger than you, neither named William."

"Rebecca and Jeff," Tommy said, not bothering to guess. Of course.

Tony nodded. "Yes. Also, a Bishop family. I'm almost embarrassed I didn't draw the connection before; I've met the man myself, and there's a definite resemblance." He paused. "However, his only daughter is too old to be you."

"I do have an older sister." The tension was creeping into Kate's voice, though he could tell she was doing her best to keep it under control. "So, basically, what you're saying is…"

"So far, it seems that your families do exist in this world. It's just that you don't."

"Well, isn't that just great." Though he did admit it was something of a relief that there wasn't another him suffering because of the same asshole parents out there.

"…I think you should still look into their grandfather." Kate's voice had an odd tone to it. "You know. Just to see if he had children."

"Oh?" Tony raised his eyebrows. "You think that'd change the results?"

Now, Tommy caught on. He'd always been quick on the uptake, after all. "I did say we were raised in different families. The thing is, in our world, neither of us was raised by our original parents." Which probably was a good thing, what with the whole going insane and breaking the world thing, but still, he had definitely gotten the short stick, there. "So, just because the Kaplans don't have Billy doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't exist." It might just mean they'd never existed a second time. Which, if there were no mutants in this world, only made sense.

"Okay, fair point. I'll have JARVIS look into that, though running the facial recognition system should probably catch anything like that, anyway." He paused. "That's not the only reason I came by, though."

"Oh?" On the screen, Kate hopped over to men's clothing. "And what's that?"

"Well." Tony ran a hand through his hair, leaving it even messier than before. "I'm now going to ask you something that's going to appear incredibly self-centered and egotistic, but I'm pretty sure that's par for the course for me no matter what the reality, so you should be used to that." He paused. "Why doesn't your brother like me?"

Tommy blinked. "Huh?"

"I mean, I'm not the best at dealing with people, but I damn well know how to read them, and it's pretty obvious he's not a fan of mine. He always tenses up when I speak, in a way he didn't do with Steve or Bruce. So, I was wondering just how different my counterpart is, or what kind of shit he's done."

"It's probably mostly just the situation." Ah, Kate, ever the optimist. "Getting stuck in one place, especially by the Avengers, doesn't exactly remind him of good things."

"And why's that?" Which, well, Tommy supposed was a fair question.

"We told you that Avengers had been around for a long time." He'd just have to figure out a way to put this that wouldn't make it sound like they were a ticking time bomb, but then, he was good at thinking on his feet. "The truth is, when our team was first put together, there were none."

"And how does that work, if your parents were on the team when they met?"

"Well, some time before that, Avengers… disbanded." Tommy sighed. "There was a pretty bad incident. A number of them died, including our father." He paused. "It's because our mother snapped and lost control of her powers."

"Billy's powers are similar, though not the same," Kate continued. "Her powers were always unpredictable; Billy had more of a problem with getting them to work at all, but when he did, they generally did what he wanted. However, this one time, he… lost control."

"That doesn't sound good." And, yeah, that was Stark all over again, all reasonable concern to rationalize his mistrust.

"Yeah, well, the problem here is, he didn't do anything bad," Tommy said. "Nor was it an unreasonable situation. He saved Manhattan from a nuke, and for that, he got locked up."

Tony's eyes widened. "Wait. Manhattan? Nuke?"

"There was a group of terrorists with a nuclear weapon," Kate clarified. "We were helping the Avengers subdue them. However, one of them managed to capture Teddy. Panicking, Billy… went off." She bit her lip, only briefly, never one to show weakness for long. "No civilians or good guys were harmed. The bad guys were all rendered comatose. No explosions, no deaths, no collateral damage beyond what had already occurred during the fight."

"However," and now Tommy couldn't help a tone of bitterness in his voice, "because Billy hadn't been entirely conscious of what he was doing, instead of thanking him for saving all of our collective asses and most of New York besides, you decided it was for the best to lock him up until you could be sure he wouldn't snap, too."

"So, wait." This time, Tony was frowning, and somehow Tommy didn't think it was in suspicion at their affiliations. "He saved the day, but because his magic did that without his conscious decision, they decided that meant he might also kill everyone without meaning to?"

"More or less." Kate shifted a bit uncomfortably. "Of course, we broke him out soon after, and by the end of it you took our side against the people who thought it would be safer to just kill the sixteen-year-old rather than risk him turning evil."

"Oh, please. Like that's going to make up for his earlier dickery." At Tony's puzzled look, Tommy snorted. "Since you don't have mutants and not much in the way of superheroes in general, I take it you've never had suggestions of SHRA?"

"Considering I've no idea what the hell that is, no, I don't think so."

"Super Human Registration Act." Kate's hand sought Tommy's, and he let her grasp it. Just to give her comfort, of course. "I've still got no idea how it got passed, but… the basic idea was that anyone with superhuman abilities would have to get registered and reveal their identity. It was presented as a security issue. Of course, nobody ever considered what it would do for the security of those who'd then be targeted by anti-mutant attacks, or have their families targeted by villains for having fought them before."

"Cap led the resistance movement, which we joined," Tommy added. "However, during one battle, Billy was captured and taken to a prison in another dimension. Which, by the way, was after one of the guys working for the SHRA cut Teddy open right in front of him, because who gives a fuck about those freaks, right? And as a cherry on top, at the time his magic was shut off by force." And those damned scars were still there.

"Fuck." He could have almost sworn the man paled at that. "No wonder he doesn't react well to this."

"Oh, that's not all." There was a meanness to smirk that he didn't even try to contain. "We said Cap led the resistance. Guess who was the figurehead of the SHRA movement? The one who came up with the idea of taking Billy out first during that battle, so he couldn't help the rest of us escape the ambush?"

"Don't tell me…"

"Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man." Tommy shook his head. "It was a mess all around, I'll give you that, but after all that shit, I'm surprised Billy still agrees to stay in the same room with any version of you."

"Given that I'm considering creating some form of trans-dimensional transportation just so I can go and punch myself in the face, I've got to agree with you." Well, what do you know. He actually sounded sincere.

"So you don't agree with his decisions?"

"What? Hell no. If I was going to judge people based on what their parents did or what they could potentially do if they went evil, I'd have to lock myself away and throw away the key." He paused. "Honestly, for a moment I thought he was so awkward about me because you all couldn't bring yourselves to tell that I'm actually your father."

"Oh, fuck no." And, despite the earlier topic, Tommy couldn't help but laugh. "Nah, that honor would go to mom's sentient vibrator." At Kate's hiss of his name, he gave her his best innocent look. Too bad it wasn't very good, certainly not when directed at her. "What? She marries an android, she'd better be prepared for jokes about battery-operated boyfriends."

"Okay, that's a story I just have to hear. Though perhaps some other time," Tony added quickly as Kate turned her glare to him. "Jeez, are disapproving gazes some female-only superpower or something? Pepper's totally got the same thing. But, anyway, is there any way I can convince the kid that I'm not going to harm him? Because this whole living arrangement is going to get very awkward very fast if he keeps looking at me like I'm going to buy him a puppy just so I can kick it."

"Well, I'd imagine the best approach would be to prove that you are not the Tony he knows." Kate shrugged. "Beyond that, I can't think of an automatic solution."

"You could try kissing Cap." Because that was totally going to happen. "It'd probably short out his fanboy circuits badly enough to wipe the whole slate clean."

"Now there's an idea I'd totally go for, if not for the fact that my most beloved would skin me alive. Or demand pictures." Now, Tony managed a grin. "I'll take that into consideration, though."

"Just don't tell Billy I said that. He'd just take that as my blessing to engage in some PDA, and all that cuteness melts my teeth." He glanced at the screen and paused. "Wait, what, there's Avengers underwear? You've got to get Teddy some of those Captain America boxers, Billy won't be able to look Cap in the eye for days."

"You know, it'd be much easier to believe that you don't want to even think about your brother getting intimate if you didn't have these rare moments of what can only be called encouragement."

"Hey, it's been pretty much proved he's my little brother, of course I want him to be happy. Doesn't mean I want to see all of it." He paused. "Hey. You think they've got some sort of 'I love Hawkeye' t-shirts somewhere?"

"If not, I'm sure we can custom-order you some." What, no protest? His skills at annoying her were really starting to get rusty. "After all, what good is a boytoy if I can't even advertise it?"

"Aww, Katie, I knew you loved me after all." Which was obviously why she elbowed him rather sharply in the side. What was a healthy relationship without a few love bruises, after all?

By the time he managed to divert his eyes from the wonders of semi-inappropriate Avengers-themed clothing, Tony was gone.

*

Someone was at the door to the gym.

Steve felt their presence more than saw it, at first, too focused on beating the punching bag. When he finished at last and turned to look, the arrival hadn't moved. Teddy stood still in the doorway, watching him without a word.

"Ah, hi there." Steve wiped some sweat off his forehead. "Did you need something?"

"I was mainly hoping to pass some time, actually." Finally, the boy walked further into the room, looking around. "Tommy said he'd seen a gym somewhere around here, so I thought to check it out."

"Yeah, it's pretty impressive. Tony has a knack for these kind of things." Steve indicated the large gym, with various equipment, weights, training mats and boxing ring. "So far it hasn't seen much use, though. I'm here a lot of the time, and Tony and Bruce use it occasionally, but I'm pretty sure there are still things around here nobody's touched since they were brought in."

"Well, considering the amount of things in here, that doesn't surprise me." Teddy chuckled. "You don't have a shooting range around here, do you?"

"There is one, though it hasn't seen much use. I only use guns occasionally, and Tony has his own targeting system."

"If it's good enough for bows, Kate's going to be happy." The boy paused. "Did I interrupt you?"

"No, not at all." Steve chuckled faintly. "I'm mostly passing time, myself. I finished my regimen earlier."

"Right." Now, a small smile rose on Teddy's lips. "Feel like sparring?"

Steve blinked. "Not to say I wouldn't be grateful for the change of pace, but I really don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not?" Teddy's eyebrows rose. "I assure you, I'm tougher than I look."

"I'll take your word for that, but I still can't imagine it'd be fair or safe." Steve shook his head. "You must be tough if you're an Avenger in your world, but I'd still have to hold back."

"And if I was obviously tougher?" Before Steve could ask what he meant, Teddy quickly took off his t-shirt. Then, before Steve's surprised eyes, he started to change.

Steve would have lied if he'd tried to claim he wasn't startled at the first hint of green skin. However, after one step back he held still, watching the rest of the transformation. This was clearly a controlled change, not the kind of chaos he'd seen from some recordings of Bruce turning into the Hulk. Moreover, the change was… different, somehow. He grew bigger, yes, his skin turning green and covered in what seemed like hard scales in places, but at the end the face that looked at him from underneath blond hair was unmistakably Teddy's, an almost sheepish smile on his face. He was only slightly larger than Steve himself, which, while rather remarkable for a teenage boy per se, was a far cry from the Hulk.

"Uh. Is this better?"

"Actually, yes it is." He managed a smile, now. "Sorry. I didn't mean to imply you don't know what you can handle, but… like this, it's easier for me not to worry."

"I know the feeling." Teddy shrugged, armored shoulders rising and falling, and that was going to take a moment to get used to. "I've spent half my life trying to remember to keep my strength in check, and that's without any transformations."

"Right." Steve indicated the training mats. "Shall we?"

It had been a while since he'd been able to do this, Steve mused, attacking and defending without either aiming to actually incapacitate his opponent or holding back. He'd been worried the first couple of times he'd felt a proper impact, but Teddy seemed to shrug them off without much difficulty. Even aside from the armored scales, it was clear his body could take a beating without much trouble.

Of course, he hadn't actually expected it to be light enough exercise that the boy could afford to start talking.

"So, you haven't actually lived here that long?"

"Not really. I only met Tony in May, and after we dealt with the alien invasion I spent almost a month going around on my own." He dodged a punch that definitely would have left an ugly bruise if it had connected. "That must seem pretty strange to you."

"Well, considering I grew up being a total Avengers fanboy, it's a bit strange, yeah." For such a big guy, he was surprisingly fast, too. "Neither Billy nor I knew we were actually related to superheroes until we started our heroics, though, so I suppose it could have been worse."

"I'd imagine." Which reminded him. "How is he now? Billy, I mean?"

"Asleep." Teddy's expression softened a bit. "I would have stuck around but he made me promise to do something else than worrying over him."

"You truly do care for him, don't you?"

"More than anything." The soft expression turned into a determined one. "My biological family is all gone, and my closest surviving relatives are not people I would care to meet. Billy is everything I have."

"You are fortunate, then." Certainly more fortunate than he, having lost everything he had and dreaming of impossibilities. "As is he to have someone like you."

"I like to think so." A big fist made contact with him, and even as he took a step backwards Steve had to wonder if Teddy was the one holding back, here. "So, you really are okay with it?"

"You and Billy? Of course." Though that did raise a question. "What about — is he okay with it? I mean, the other Captain?" Because if not, that would definitely explain their defensive attitude.

"Oh, he's actually been pretty great. The one time it came up, he said he was glad Billy had me in a difficult situation, and let us stay in the same room in the Mansion." His lips twitched. "Separate beds, yeah, but then we were only sixteen at the time."

"Right." Well. He did not want to think too hard on that, really he didn't, but… "Ah. You boys do know what you're doing, right?" Because while he was sure Tony's comment had been made mostly to rile him up, that didn't make it any less relevant.

Teddy raised his eyebrows. "We've had more than enough Talks, if that's what you mean. And frankly, I'm trying not to make any assumptions here, but I'm pretty sure we are at least as well informed about such things as a guy who woke up to the 21st century less than a year ago. Unless, of course, you've been subjected to some kind of Modern Gay Sex and How to Have It lecture courtesy of Stark, in which case I'd still question the accuracy of the information due to unreliable sources."

"Good. That's, ah, that's good." He paused. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply you're ignorant, it's just…"

"It's just that you were a military publicity figure at a time when half the propaganda directed at soldiers was about wrapping it up?" Okay, so, yes, some of that might have stuck. "I won't lie, I was a bit worried about how you would react to the revelation we're together. Not because our Cap's ever given us grief, obviously, just… well. He's adjusted to the times pretty much as well as anyone else, better so than most. You haven't had nearly as much time to do so."

"Well, I'm glad I didn't disappoint, at least." He landed yet another hit, a kick right in the middle of the big, green chest, yet Teddy only barely staggered back. "You know, I'm starting to see where you got your name from."

"Pretty sure I'd lose if I tried to wrestle with the big man himself."

"I'd say that's a good thing in this case. I definitely wouldn't want to try training with Hulk, and not because I'd be afraid of hurting him."

"Aw, come on, Cap. You know he just wants to give you a hug. A huge, bone-crushing, hopefully not lethal one." The sudden voice made them both pause before turning towards its source. Tony was standing some way from them, hands in his pockets and a grin on his face.

"Tony?" Steve blinked. "Is something the matter?"

"Hm? Oh, no. Just reminding myself that blonds can be pretty, too, even though I'm contractually obligated to prefer redheads or suffer Pepper's ire." He tilted his head to the side. "Come to think of it, I should probably ask her about her opinion on my giving other people lectures on gay sex. You know, purely in the interest of the continued health and wellbeing of my fellow Avengers."

"Uh. How long have you been listening?" Teddy was rapidly shrinking to his usual size, the green making room for a pink tone on his cheeks.

"Oh, just about long enough." He grinned. "JARVIS thought I'd be interested in another big green rage monster, though I have to say I'm disappointed. A lot less rage than I expected. Bit of a letdown, really."

"Sorry?" Teddy ran a hand over his hair, only managing to mess it up further. "I'm just not a very angry guy most of the time."

"I suppose we're all lucky for that." Tony picked up the shirt Teddy had discarded earlier, handing it back to him. "By the way, I was also informed your dear companions finished their monumental task of online shopping. JARVIS placed the orders, so you should get new clothes and other necessities before the day's over. I mean, I'm sure you could handle using the same clothes for ages, you're teenage boys after all, but they would get dirty eventually. Not to mention stinky."

"I'll, ah, try to avoid stinkiness." Poor boy. Tony was obviously enjoying teasing him. "I suppose I should avoid being a redhead, too?"

"If you could. I'm sure you'd look absolutely fetching as one, but I'm also pretty sure I'm well above the age where it's in any way appropriate to appreciate high school students."

"I've been under the impression that, being in a relationship, you're not supposed to actively appreciate most people." And if Tony was going to neglect Pepper, Steve would correct him. Tony was incredibly lucky to have such a lovely lady at his side; it would have been an absolute crime for him not to do well by her.

"Hey, I'm taking a purely hands-off approach, here. If Pepper wanted a boyfriend who never even looks at anyone else, she wouldn't be dating me."

"Pepper." Teddy frowned. "Are you talking about Pepper Potts?"

"Well, obviously. My beautiful, capable, and stunning CEO and the love of my life. If I were talking about chili peppers, I would not be even nearly as concerned about offending them."

"Right." There was an odd expression on Teddy's face. "Well. That sounds nice."

"I'm not going to ask anything about my counterpart's love life, nor that of the Pepper in your world. Some things are just better left unknown." Tony shook his head. "Besides, from what I've heard my counterpart is even more of an asshole than I am, so I choose to believe he leads a life of misery and loneliness in punishment for his crimes."

"Oh?" Steve frowned. "What do you mean by that?" Nothing good, if the way Teddy was apparently trying to sneak off in the background was any indication.

"Nothing, nothing. Nothing you'd like to know, anyway." Tony patted his shoulder. "Now. What do you say you join me in my quest for the perfect lunch sandwich? Bruce said he's cooking dinner for everyone but I can't wait that long, and by order of Pepper I'm not allowed in the kitchen unsupervised for two more weeks on account of the speaking coffee maker incident."

It was, Steve was aware, not the most ordinary life they led in the Tower, but he supposed it was something he could get used to, anyway.

*

After looking thoroughly through the fourth cabinet in a row, Bruce officially gave up and sighed. "JARVIS? Do you have any idea where the rice cooker is?" He knew there was a rice cooker. He had used it, several times. There was no logical reason why he couldn't find it. Several Tony-related reasons, perhaps, but no logical ones.

"In the corner cupboard, awaiting repairs, I'm afraid," JARVIS replied. "The cord was unfortunately damaged during the coffee maker incident. While Sir has assured me he is planning to replace the cord and plug at his earliest convenience, he seems to have set the actual priority of the task rather low."

"Splendid." He took off his glasses and set them aside, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "So I'll have to spend half of my cooking time watching the rice."

"I do apologize for the inconvenience, Doctor Banner. If you wish, I could order a new one, but I do fear it would arrive too late to assist you in the dinner preparations."

"No, that's fine. I'll manage somehow." Which just meant he'd have to find a kettle to cook the rice in, instead. That wasn't bad, he'd certainly cooked in much worse conditions, with equipment and ingredients that were light years away from what he had available here. It would have been rather childish of him to complain about what was, at most, a minor inconvenience.

"I'll put in an order for a new one, nevertheless. After all, there is no reason for things to be difficult the next time as well." Bless JARVIS and his never-ending consideration for the plights of mere mortals.

"Uh. Is this a bad time?"

Bruce blinked, withdrawing from the cupboard he had been scouring for a kettle, and offered a faint smile at the boy in the doorway. "Ah. Billy, wasn't it? You look better." Which he hoped wasn't an incredibly rude or stupid thing to say, but it was true. He'd only seen the boy briefly the previous night, barely awake and pale like death, and from what he had heard, he'd been only marginally better around breakfast.

"Ah, yeah. I kinda feel better, too." He gave Bruce a sheepish grin. "I finally got enough sleep, and after a shower and a shave I feel mostly human again."

"And I see the new clothes arrived already, too." The boy was wearing a blue hoodie with Captain's shield on it. Bruce couldn't help but wonder what Steve was going to say.

"Yeah." Billy shuffled his feet a bit as though embarrassed, but his grin didn't fade. "For all that Tommy makes fun of me for being a geek, he mysteriously does know what I like."

"He sounds like a good brother." Bruce couldn't help but smile. "Is he off blowing up things again?"

"No. Apparently, he decided video games fall under the title of bare necessities. He and Teddy are currently getting their asses kicked by Kate in some game with a lot of guns."

"Is there a particular reason you're not joining them?"

"Eh, I'm never any good at those games. My aim's absolutely atrocious." He scratched the back of his neck. "Uh, so, I heard you're cooking. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not right now, I don't think. Unless you've got a handy spell for fixing rice cookers?"

"Normally I probably could do that, but my magic's on the fritz, still." Billy frowned. "What's wrong with it?"

"The cord has been almost entirely severed," JARVIS replied in Bruce's stead. "There are also lesser damages along a significant length of the cord. It is unlikely the device would function in a sufficient manner, and it would certainly not be safe to try." There was no sigh, of course, given the lack of need for air, but JARVIS did manage to sound long-suffering nevertheless. "It would be quite a simple matter for Sir to repair, but it appears he keeps forgetting."

"Can I see it?"

"I am really not sure there is much you could do to aid the situation, Master William," JARVIS said with a regretful tone. "Nevertheless, should you wish to inspect the damage, you should find the cooker in the corner cupboard."

"Thanks." Billy headed for the cupboard in question, opening it. "You mean this, right? This isn't some kind of sentient killer robot cleverly disguised as a broken rice cooker?"

"I do assure you that is not the case."

"That's a relief." Billy took the cooker out of the cupboard and set it on a counter. "Hm. Is the plug still functional?"

"It would be rather hard to ascertain that, but I believe so."

"Great." Billy grinned. "I'm pretty sure I can help, then."

"And how would you do that?" Bruce frowned. "I mean, it might seem easier to just fix it, but I would really feel more secure if you volunteered to just try to get Tony's attention for five minutes, instead." Not that he wanted to doubt the boy's words or anything, but he really didn't feel good about letting a kid mess around with a broken electronic device.

"Hm? Oh, no. I don't know anything about stuff like that; if I need to fix something, I usually just use magic. But, well, the problem here is basically that we can't get the electric current safely down the cord to the cooker?"

"More or less, yeah. How does that change the situation?"

"My magic's not responding, that's true." Billy grinned and lifted his hand, tiny blue sparks flying along his fingertips. "However, that doesn't mean I'm entirely without powers."

"You… can control electricity." At least he certainly hoped so. If this was some kind of an illusion so he'd get an excuse to grab an exposed wire out of desperation, Bruce would kick himself.

"Somewhat? I haven't relied on it much since I started to get a proper grasp on my magic, but I should be able to keep it contained within the wires, where it belongs. And even if I fail, I'm at least reasonably sure I won't get hurt if there's an unplanned surge or anything. I've dealt with enough lightning before."

"Right." Bruce rubbed the bridge of his nose again. "I hope you'll forgive me if I still request you do that at the opposite end of the kitchen."

"Hey, I'd ask the same in your position." Billy carried the cooker to the farthest outlet from where Bruce had laid out the curry ingredients. "The same way I hope you won't get offended if I say I'd rather not annoy you with any stray sparks."

"Not offended at all. Very few people are eager to annoy me." Bruce chuckled as he started measuring the rice. Better make a lot, if the rate the pizza had disappeared the night before was any indication of their guests' usual appetite. "I'm pretty sure Tony's the only one who has ever actively tried to aggravate me without clearing to a safe distance, first."

"He tries to make you angry? That doesn't sound very genius-like of him."

"Well, believe it or not, Tony has a surprisingly optimistic streak when it comes to trusting people." Bruce shook his head. "He'd decided that I was one of the good guys. Therefore, he was going to treat me like an interesting specimen, instead of a ticking time bomb. I know that doesn't sound like something a good friend would do, but compared with the way everyone else seemed to be just waiting for the moment the other guy showed up to murder them all, I was more than happy to be the subject of his poking and prodding."

"Wait. Tony did that? Tony Stark?" Thankfully, Billy kept the plug far from the outlet while Bruce added the rice and the water into the cooker. "That sounds… pretty idealistic of him."

"Tony's more of an idealist than most people realize, and certainly more so than he would ever admit." Bruce chuckled. "I'm not saying he's a nice person, because a lot of the time he's not, even to his very few friends. However, he prefers to make up his mind about people on his own rather than rely on what others perceive as a threat."

"Right." And then, with Bruce safely on the other side of the kitchen, he put the plug in the outlet. For a terrifying second, Bruce thought he would soon have to explain exactly how he had let a kid electrocute himself right in front of him, but instead, he saw the lights on the cooker turning on. At the cut part of the cord he saw a blue current rushing from one cut end to the other, sparks dancing along the exposed wires of the damaged area. "There! Knew I could get it to work."

"I really could have just cooked the rice in a regular kettle, you know." Bruce shook his head. "There's no reason for you to sit here just to keep an already broken cooker running."

"Well, I wanted to help, and this happens to fall within the extents of my skill set." He leaned against the counter, one hand tapping at the damaged wire as though the blue sparks were nothing more than pretty decorations. "Honestly, I should probably be apologizing in advance for the fact that I'll likely be talking your ears off once I find an appropriate subject. I feel a bit too awake right now."

"I'll survive somehow." Bruce smiled as he started preparing the vegetables. "I've been told I have a knack for listening, anyway."

He was not exactly upset to spend some time with another person who seemed to have little fear of him.


	5. Pepper, My Pepper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper returns, much to the delight of Tony, and meets Tony's latest set of strays. Steve has somewhat conflicted feelings about the whole thing, which Bruce of course notices.

There was danger stalking the hallways of the Tower.

Tony knew this with the certainty that he knew his heart was beating, and yes, he was quite certain of that, he damn well knew what cardiac arrest felt like. There was danger, and he had to be prepared for it.

Of course, unlike matters of the heart, this knowledge was not precisely his own doing. While he was rather happy with his instincts when it came to battles, he did not have any form of actual precognition. His most beneficial mutation was the miraculous ability to process lactose despite having been weaned off human milk ages ago, but then, that was where his less supernatural abilities came in handy. He did not need any form of preternatural knowledge when he had JARVIS on his side, informing him well ahead of time that a certain red-haired lady was storming on her way toward the workshop.

Thanks to the advance warning, he managed to set aside the prototype he was tinkering with, cleaning up his hands. By the time Pepper tapped in her access code, he was all ready for her arrival.

"Pepper, light of my life!" He didn't even try to stop the grin that crept onto his face as she walked in. "What a pleasant surprise! I thought you wouldn't be back until next week."

"Yes, well, I managed to wrap up the negotiations faster than I expected." Pepper raised one perfect eyebrow. "And then I decided to return as soon as possible to see the strays you decided to adopt."

"Well, I've always been under the impression that if something follows me home, I am allowed to keep it. Surely unexpected appearances out of thin air fall under the same clause."

"I'm afraid I need a bit more details than that." She walked closer. "All you really said on the phone was that four teenagers appeared and you decided to take them in."

"Well, the details of it are a bit more complicated than I really could have explained over the phone." Tony gave his most dramatic sigh before clasping her hands. "I just wanted to make sure you could get the full experience."

"I'm here now." Pepper's lips twitched. "You can start with the appearing from thin air part."

It did take a moment for Pepper to be caught up on what had happened, along with the further details Tony had managed to find out about the kids during the couple of days they had been living there. By the end of the story, he had managed to coax her to sit down on the couch in the corner of the workshop.

"So, you're letting them stay here while you try to figure out where they came from and how to get them back there," Pepper concluded. "And you don't think this will lead to some kind of trouble?"

"Well, as long as they manage to stay indoors, there shouldn't be too much pain from either the tabloids or SHIELD," Tony replied. "Anything beyond that is hardly relevant."

"Tabloids might not be able to figure it out as long as they don't go running around the public areas, but how exactly do you plan to keep this from SHIELD? I'm sure they do a bit more to keep an eye on the Avengers than simply watching the front door."

"Perhaps, but it's not that simple." Tony shrugged. "The top floors are entirely separate from the rest of the security system, and I'm confident they've yet to worm their way into my private system. The new SHIELD representative has never been here; JARVIS doesn't like him too much." And how much of a genius was he that his AI not only had preferences when it came to people, but had a great taste to top it off?

"And what about the things you had ordered for them? While I don't think they're villains, exactly, I'm also not naive enough to think they would not keep an eye on communication going out from the Tower to the stores."

"Oh, that won't be enough to raise suspicions. The boys are close enough in size to me and Steve that it shouldn't cause any worries, and while the female clothes probably aren't an exact match, if Fury actually dares to question me about ordering women's clothes in the wrong size and style for you, I can always blame my less than stellar gifting skills."

"And they're just going to buy the explanation that whatever clothes you ordered for a bunch of teenagers were actually for yourself and Cap?"

"Why not?" He tilted his head, the very picture of innocence. "You know my sense of style isn't always the most adult, certainly not at home. And if I can actually make some poor agent go tell Fury that I have apparently taken an interest in Captain America boxers, all the better."

"I do hope that is a joke." Her eyebrows were rising dangerously high.

"Sadly no. There are Captain America boxers out there, and Tommy found it appropriate to order a pair for his brother's boyfriend." He grinned. "The kid's all big and blond, too, like a younger Steve. I have no idea about the magic, but at least the kid's got pretty good taste."

"Careful. I might get suspicious that what you're really doing here is arranging superhero orgies while I'm not around." And yet there was a smile on her face as she poked him in the shoulder.

"Oh, come on. Surely I'm allowed to make an exception for Steve? I mean, the guy's practically human perfection made flesh."

"Yes, that much is clear from the fact that you're gushing on about him. For all of your so-called appreciation of beautiful people, it's rather rare for you to go on like this about a man."

"This coming from the woman who announced she was trading me in when Steve moved in?"

"Hey, at least he has manners to go with his looks." She paused. "Just so you know, if this does turn out to be an overly complicated scheme of yours to sneak in some illegitimate kids without my knowing it, I'm going to be very angry. Not because of the existence of the kids, but for such an incredulous lie."

"I should be offended. You know, I really should. If I was trying to hide something, do you really think I couldn't come up with something more believable than teenage invaders from another world?" Honestly. And to think he prided himself on his creativity, as far as innovation went, anyway.

"Oh, I know. And believe me, that is the only reason I would even consider believing such a story." And this was why he loved Pepper so much. At least, it was one of the many and varied reasons.

"So, how about it? Want to meet the new additions to the household?" He grinned. "I promise they're already house-trained and everything."

"Hmm, now that would depend on a few things." Her lips quirked in that most charming of ways. "How are they about not chewing on shoes?"

Well, perhaps she wouldn't kill him after all. Hopefully.

He'd have to ask her how she felt about Iron Man underwear, though.

*

It was, Steve decided, rather interesting to see Pepper meet the children.

For someone who had only had minimal warning, she seemed to be taking the situation in a stride. Having talked things out with Tony, she had headed to the living room right as the children were squabbling over the right to choose the TV channel, introducing herself as a co-owner of the Tower and the jailer of its primary owner. Tony was practically beaming despite the affectionate insult, excited like a child at Christmas to have his beloved Pepper back on east coast. It was sweet to see, the obvious affection they held for each other, even if it also made Steve's heart ache with jealousy sometimes.

Pepper was conducting her own form of an interrogation, disguised as familiar conversation in a way Steve was quite sure didn't fool any of the children, but at least they were willing to play along. Tommy seemed restless, shifting this way and that, but that was likely more due to his general character than discomfort at the situation at hand. The others were all pleasant enough, talking with her openly though Steve suspected there were quite a few things left unsaid. Not that he could blame them, of course; some of the subjects at hand were far from the light chatter Pepper's tones suggested.

"He actually flew the nuke into a worm hole?" Kate's eyes widened. "And I thought my team could get suicidal at times!"

"Yes, well, he came back." Pepper reached a hand to pat Tony's shoulder, much like one might a puppy. However, with the way her hand lingered a moment, it seemed less condescending and more like she was reassuring herself he was indeed still there. "It's a good thing he did, too. If he hadn't, I'm not sure I would have forgiven myself for not noticing his call."

"I would have," Tony noted easily. "After all the shit I've put you through it'd be the least I deserve."

"Now see, this?" Pepper indicated him. "This is why it's sometimes hard to believe just how full of himself he is. But then, if anyone could perfect the art of being both self-deprecating and egotistical, of course it would be Tony Stark."

"If he's that bad, why are you dating him, then?" Steve winced at Tommy's words, though the boy himself did not seem to find any fault at them.

"Well, it's not like I had any choice." Pepper's lips twitched a bit. "At that point I'd spent so much time with him and risked my life so many times, by choices were basically either to date him or murder him in his sleep, and the R&D would fall apart in a week without him."

"Pepper!" Tony huffed with a scandalized tone. "You know damn well they wouldn't make it three days without my genius!"

"The longest time you've been recorded as entirely impossible to contact since making me CEO is five days," Pepper replied. "As such, I have evidence they can make it at least that long."

"Ah, right. That was when I was designing the tower, right?" Tony grinned. "I'm pretty sure one of the engineers presented me with blueprints her three-year-old had helped her with. I wouldn't normally accuse a perfectly good engineer of something like that, but half of the design was in crayons."

"Indeed. So you're lucky you're worth more to me alive than dead." The effect of her words was rather ruined by the smile on her lips and the soft look in her eyes as she looked at Tony. It made something inside Steve ache in a way he was desperately trying to ignore.

"Oh, Pepper, my Pepper, I've been lucky since the first day you walked into my life." His grin only got brighter. "You're pretty much the reason I'm still alive."

"Well, yes. If I hadn't hit the switch, you would have been the one who had an unfortunate accident at the factory." Her smile softened a touch, before a new spark lit her eyes. "Of course, I'm only staying with you because you still haven't delivered on your promise of another tower."

"I've been working on it, I promise. Though I've got to say, the idea that you're going to leave me as soon as the Potts Tower is done isn't exactly a great motivation to work harder."

"I might still keep you around. Given the time it took you to have this one in need of a rebuild, I'd be quite a fool to dismiss you before even the first alien attack on my brand new Tower."

"You know, I don't know why," Teddy cut in, "but somehow, I get the same feeling as when I'm watching Kate and Tommy going at it."

"Excuse me?" Kate asked, raising her eyebrows. "What about this is in any way similar?"

"They've got actual feelings," Tommy pointed out. "It can't remind you of us. I had mine surgically removed when I was seven."

"It's cute how you think anyone could actually believe that." Billy snorted. "I don't care if you're grandfather's favorite or not, you can't claim not to have feelings just because you're marginally less sappy than Teddy and I."

"Eh, let him pretend. I used to claim pretty much the same when I was your age." Tony waved his hand. "He'll grow out of it."

"Yes, because you are so very open and honest about your positive feelings now." Pepper's expression of disbelieving amusement reflected Kate's quite well.

"Sure I am, with the people who deserve it. Is it my fault they are so few and far between?"

"Oh yes, definitely Tommy." Teddy nodded sagely. "I suppose we can take this as an indication that the blowing things up bit isn't going to change."

"Yeah, not at all." Tony chuckled. "But hey, I managed to find someone who tolerates me anyway, so…" He leaned a bit closer to Pepper, and for a moment, they looked absolutely perfect, just like that.

Steve turned to go from where he had been leaning against the wall. He hated the part of himself that got so jealous at his friend for daring to be happy.

"Cap? Where are you going?" Of course Tony would notice his presence just as he was trying to get away.

"Oh, I was just going to go see Bruce," Steve replied, a quick half-lie turning into a truth in a blink. "Since it's my turn to make dinner, I thought I'd ask him what he'd like."

"Oh?" Tony lifted his eyebrows. "And the rest of us don't matter at all?"

"Well, in my experience, our young guests will eat more or less anything I put in front of them. And you," Steve pointed a finger at Tony, "are going to take the dame out for a nice, private dinner that does not include any of the strays you keep dragging in. Preferably, you'll leave your cell phone home, too."

"Leave my phone? Are you trying to kill me or something?" The mock horror on Tony's face might have seemed genuine if Steve hadn't seen the exact same expression from him as he witnessed the terrible crime of Steve reading an actual physical newspaper.

"Not at all. I'm just trying to get you some private time with the lady you've missed so very much." Steve crossed his arms over his chest, lifting an eyebrow. "Of course, if you'd rather have her thinking about children…"

"What? No!" Tony was on his feet in a flash. "What the — don't even joke about that!" He quickly strode out of the room right past Steve. "JARVIS? Make a reservation right away. And damn, I need to get changed too, I can't go out like this, damn it, why didn't I think of this before…"

"See? This is why I let Tony pick who he wants to live at the Tower," Pepper said, and the slightly teasing smile on her face reminded Steve of Peggy so much, he had to swallow. "He may have his various flaws, but his taste in friends is impeccable."

She didn't know how wrong she was, of course. She didn't know just how bad of a friend Steve was, how jealous he was of Tony and of Pepper and of the two of them together. However, he wasn't going to tell her otherwise, not when she was smiling like that.

As long as she and Tony could both smile like that, there was no way Steve would let them fall apart, for any reason.

*

"I have to say, this is a good feeling." As Steve gave Bruce a questioning glance, he replied with a faint smile. "Cooking for a lot of people, that is. After all the time I spent running around on my own, it feels kind of good to have a lot of people around."

"I have to agree." Steve returned his smile, then turned back to the vegetables he had been chopping for a salad. "Even after I moved in, it was rather quiet at times, with you and Tony in your labs and Pepper busy with the company."

"I'm sorry. Years on the run don't exactly leave one with a lot of social graces." No matter how badly he had been aching for actual human contact instead of brief encounters with people who didn't know him at all, now that he was surrounded by people it was still hard to make contact sometimes. In a way, it was even harder now that he knew and liked the people around him; with that knowledge came even greater fear of hurting them.

"No, I didn't mean it like that! It's not like I'm perfect company a lot of the time, either." Steve shook his head. "I mean, I didn't mind it, really. After everything it was good to have the time and space to put my head on straight. Now that we've got people running about all the time, though, it feels good. I've never really lived on my own, so the loneliness was… difficult."

"I'd imagine." Not that he could entirely understand, not quite. He had become quite familiar with loneliness during his years of hiding, and that had been on top of a lifetime full of less than stellar human relationships. "I've got to say, when I first heard you were moving in I wasn't expecting it to go well. Tony can be difficult even when he likes someone, and the two of you didn't exactly get on at first."

"Not one of my proudest moments." Steve sighed, finishing chopping up another tomato and tossing it into the salad bowl. "I judged him by what little I knew of his father and about him, which wasn't fair of me on any level. However, he proved himself more than worthy of my respect." He paused, eyes somewhere much farther away than the kitchen wall. "I'm just grateful he decided to give me another chance as well."

"Yeah, well, the sad thing about Tony is, he actually doesn't hold himself in very high regard." And the fact that Bruce had managed to figure this out during the little time he had spent in the Tower was saying something. "By which I don't mean that he doesn't know his strengths, no, he's well aware of those. It's just… there are things he will not forgive, and others he will brush away like they don't matter at all. Insults towards him, especially from people he feels inclined to respect, belong to the latter."

"Which just makes what I said even more heinous." Steve's eyes snapped back into focus, seeking Bruce, now. "However, it seems he has forgiven me. I'm determined not to make him regret that decision."

"I don't think he will." It was clear enough that Tony liked Steve, as much as he ever liked anyone, no matter how badly their personalities and values clashed on a semi-regular basis. "Besides, Pepper likes you. You could probably paint tiny flowers all over his bots and turn the living room into an actual daycare and he still wouldn't kick you out."

"Yeah, Tony does seem like he'd do anything for her." A smile took over Steve's face, now, a faint one that almost hinted towards wistful. Well, wasn't that interesting.

"He pretty much regards her as the best thing in his life. And yes, that is including the arc reactor." Bruce was quiet for a moment, quickly going through his various observations. For once, he wished he'd spent more time around the others so he'd have more evidence to piece together. "And still, he needed you to remind him to take her to dinner."

"He's just not very good at relationships, I guess. Not that I'm any good myself, I've never had any actual experience or anything, but I've spent more than enough time thinking about how I'd treat a lovely lady if I ever had one in my life. Tony… well. I'm not sure he ever even entertained the possibility before he got Pepper."

"Sounds about right, from what little I know of Tony from before." And the small smile on Steve's lips wasn't going anywhere. "But then, Pepper's quite possibly the only woman in the world who would be able to stand by him on a long-term basis. Not because Tony's not a good guy, he's just… intense."

"That he certainly is." And again the far-off look even as he continued his grisly work of vegetable slaughter. "It's — it's like being too close to an open flame, staying near Tony for a while. It's like he cannot contain his genius."

"I suppose being one of the foremost minds of our generation has its trade-offs." And its admirers, if the look on Steve's face was anything to go by. "I'll admit, I've been wondering if that's why he invited us to move in here. I don't think he's had a whole lot of people in his life that he genuinely likes, so now that he's found some, he's determined to keep them. That, and he really does enjoy being generous, not that he'd ever admit it."

"Yes, I've noticed that, too." As though it would have been possible to miss it, with the way Tony showered his wealth upon the few people he approved of. "He's… well. He has a habit of making very simple things incredibly complicated sometimes."

"That's all too true." Steve chuckled, a soft sound that sounded fond. Not in a way that Bruce could bring himself to like, though.

"Steve." He hadn't meant for his voice to sound so close to harsh, but it was out before he could stop it. "Despite all evidence to the contrary, Tony and Pepper actually are happy together, and working to stay that way."

Now, Steve blinked, looking at him. "Yes, I know that. Just because Tony's somewhat oblivious at times doesn't mean he isn't trying."

"I'm glad you know that." Stay calm, Bruce. This wasn't worth losing control over. "Furthermore, I'm not so sure Tony could actually be happy if he lost Pepper."

"I certainly hope he'll never have to try." Steve sounded sincere, so very sincere, and the tone of his voice cut Bruce like a blade.

"Indeed. That's why I will not allow anyone to draw either of them away."

"What?" Steve blinked again, then looked shocked. "You — you think I would —"

"It doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility." Bruce shook his head. "I know you consider Pepper a beautiful woman, and I'd have to be blind not to see that you have some strong feelings for Tony as well. But, please… if you care about either of them at all… do not try to break what they have."

"I never would." The look Steve gave him was deathly serious. "It's true that I find Pepper attractive in both appearance and personality, and I do spend more of my time thinking about Tony than I probably should. However, I like to think they are both my friends. I care about them, and would never wish to cause any unhappiness to either of them. That's why I'm more concerned about preserving their relationship than ever thinking of putting it at risk."

"That's good to hear. Tony's lost too many people in his life, and he's never had enough of them to begin with. I don't think he could stand losing Pepper as well." He paused, then, something in the way Steve had worded his response bugging him. "Ah. You do know it's considered okay for men to feel attracted to men, too, nowadays? I mean, in terms of the general society, individual throwbacks aside."

"Yes, well, I kind of gathered that. If nothing else, it would have been made very clear at the point Tony started a furious rant about how he finds it insulting when people always bring up his womanizing habits when talking about his past because nobody seems to even consider that he might be attractive to men as well."

"Well, that's good to know at least. Don't get me wrong, I know you've been nothing but great about Billy and Teddy, but something about the way you talked about Tony just… made me wonder."

"About whether I'm attracted to him the same way I am to Pepper?" Steve shook his head. "I'd say I'll tell you when I figure it out, but frankly, I'm just trying not to think about it."

"So there's a chance you are?"

"I won't deny that I find him fascinating. However, that's not automatically the same as being attracted. And since it's utterly irrelevant either way because they are both happily in a relationship I have no intention to disrupt, I don't see much of a reason to dwell on it."

"Right." It wasn't exactly the answer he had been hoping for, but it was better than nothing. "I hope this whole situation turns out for the best for everyone." Including Steve, though he wasn't going to say that aloud. The last thing he wanted to do was come across as pitying or worse.

"I certainly hope so as well." Steve nodded. "So. Think this will be enough to feed the two of us and the kids?"

"Frankly? I don't think anything will be enough for this bunch, but we'll certainly try our best. And this is excellent timing, because the pasta is just about done as well." Bruce chuckled. "JARVIS? Would you let the young ones know it's time for dinner?"

"Certainly, Master Bruce." JARVIS paused. "I presume I will keep this conversation between the three of us, shall I?"

"That would be appreciated, yes." Bruce gave a faint smile in the general direction of the ceiling. "No need to cause Tony any unnecessary stress, is there? And he certainly has enough teasing material as it is."

"Indeed so." Ah, JARVIS, ever the gentle-AI.

Bruce was just going to join him by not mentioning a word more about the matter while he and Steve finished the dinner preparations.


	6. Home, Or Something Close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The young visitors are growing somewhat more comfortable with the Avengers Tower and its inhabitants. And, as it happens, the other way around.

There were quite a few things Steve had come to reasonably expect when he came down to Tony's workshop, which was becoming a more frequent occurrence. Tony deep at work was the usual sight, surrounded by his glowing lights and the plans of a hundred new brilliant ideas circling his head, and one that he had come to anticipate before he even reached the doors. At other, somewhat less frequent times, he might find Tony passed out in the middle of his work, in which case Steve would either carry him somewhere more comfortable or at least cover him up lest he catch a cold. And even when Tony wasn't there, the bots always were, whirring about with this task or that, or hurrying up to greet Steve at the door.

This time, as he approached the workshop, there was no sign of Tony or his blue lights, nothing aside from a few unfinished projects strewn here and there, waiting for someone to attend to them. However, before he could even get to the door, a loud clatter made it clear someone was in there, though hidden from the view.

"Hello?" Frowning, Steve walked in as soon as the door opened. "Is someone here?"

"Oh, hi." Teddy's face appeared from behind a workbench, his eyes bright. "We're helping out."

"Helping with what?" Steve walked closer, relaxing minutely as he saw it wasn't some stranger invading Tony's workshop. Of course, he supposed JARVIS would have noticed such an intrusion, but it was still good to see it for himself. "Dummy?"

"He got a bit too enthusiastic about putting out a fire that technically wasn't there, and managed to ruin his charging port," Billy explained from where he was sitting on the floor, his hand somewhere inside Dummy's half-open chassis. The bot turned its arm toward Steve, nodding a bit in greeting. "Tony's having a new one manufactured, but he can't install it until tonight, and Dummy's battery was running low."

"So since we didn't have anything better to do than sitting around and talking anyway, Tony enlisted Billy to help," Teddy finished. "I'm here keeping the two of them company."

"You can do that?" Steve blinked. "I mean, Bruce mentioned you did something with electricity, but…."

"Yeah. It's a bit fiddly, but doable." Billy shrugged. "We tried out with an old spare battery, and figured that while a full-on lightning bolt would fry the entire thing, feeding small sparks gets the charge up slowly but surely. By Tony's calculations doing this up until lunch should give Dummy enough juice to make it through until he gets back."

"I suppose I should apologize for Tony." Steve sighed. "He's not always the most considerate of people."

"Eh, I don't mind. It's not like I'm going to get bored with Teddy and Dummy here." He grinned at his boyfriend. "Sure, it's pretty tiring, but nothing a good meal and a nap won't fix."

"Besides, Tony promised to bring us back tablets," Teddy chuckled. "So that's pretty good hourly wage."

"Yeah, that sounds like something Tony would do, too." Steve shook his head, though he couldn't help but smile. "So what is he busy with? Usually when he's got some big project going on, he sets up camp right here." And then it was up to the other residents to make sure he ate and slept every now and then. Steve had done that often enough to know, and he couldn't even imagine how Pepper had managed before any of them had moved in.

"Apparently, he had to go and yell at someone at the SI R&D department. And yes, he put it exactly like that." Teddy shrugged. "He didn't give us the details, but considering the fact he told JARVIS to make sure he had all the schematics on his tablet, and didn't expect to be back until dinner at earliest, it's probably going to take a while."

"Right." Steve nodded. It was a bit of a disappointment, but then, Tony's work was more important than entertaining old men out of time. Even if he wasn't too happy about Tony yelling at people, it was still good to hear he was actually taking his work seriously.

"Did you need him for something?" Billy looked at him curiously. "Because he told us that if anything comes up, he'll have his cell on, so you can just call him."

"No, that's all right. I was actually just looking for somewhere to sit and sketch, that's all." Steve smiled. "It's interesting to sketch here; there's always something new going on."

"I bet." Billy chuckled. "I'm afraid we're not quite as entertaining, unless you'd like to listen to us talk about our favorite superheroes from our world."

"Oh? I'd have thought you would have covered such subjects long ago."

"See, here's the thing, we can always talk more about heroes." Teddy grinned. "A healthy relationship is built on shared interests, after all."

"Surely you have more in common than an interest in superheroes." At least Steve certainly hoped so.

"Oh, of course we do. However, it is how we got together in the first place, so it's got a special place in our hearts." Billy chuckled. "Even if Teddy here has an absolutely atrocious taste sometimes."

"Hey, I have fantastic taste. I fell for you, didn't I?"

"Oh, sure. And how many years did you spend crushing on Cap before that?" Billy blinked, then looked at Steve. "Um. Sorry if that's awkward."

"I think I'll live." Steve chuckled. "Even so, I hope you're not offended if I'll go see what Bruce is doing instead of listening to you analyze the attractiveness of my counterpart."

"No offense taken." Teddy grinned. "And truth be told, Billy's the one who had the truly terrible Cap crush. I'm pretty sure it's why he fell for the big blond guy."

"Yeah, well, when we started dating, you had black hair half the time, so that obviously can't be true."

Steve shook his head, heading out of the workshop, leaving them to their conversation. He supposed it would have been entertaining, had he stayed to listen, but it might have also damaged his sanity beyond repair.

Even so, it was good to hear more happy voices in the Tower.

*

JARVIS had, once again, been correct, Bruce found as he walked to the shooting range. Kate was there, casual t-shirt and jeans contrasting with the deadly serious look on her face as she took aim. Bruce watched as she drew her bow, aimed along the arrow, and loosed. The arrow sailed uninterrupted through the air, striking the target exactly in the middle.

"That's quite extraordinary," he commented as she lowered her bow, deciding this was the best time to interrupt her. Startling someone with a weapon at the ready was rarely a good idea. "Where did you learn?"

"Music camp, actually." She turned to look at him, setting her bow down to fix her ponytail. "They couldn't keep us playing every moment of every day, however much some of the instructors might have preferred that."

"I suppose." He walked closer, slow steps, not wanting to startle her. However, the only emotion she showed was curiosity as he approached. He could almost get used to all these people who didn't seem ready to run the moment he frowned. "And how hard is it to learn?"

"Drawing and aiming? Not hard at all; a child could do it. Hitting the target every time, any time, no matter the circumstances? Pretty damn hard."

"And how close are you to that goal?" He did his best to keep his tone curious, without a hint of mocking. He did genuinely respect her skill, but he knew well any such comments could be seen as making fun of her.

"Close enough to be passable on the field." She shrugged. "Last time I went against the actual Hawkeye, I lost, but then that's a pretty high goal, still."

"It would be." Bruce nodded. "Tony did mention you had a good bow. I figured you would probably have the skills to go with it."

"It had better be a good one. After all, it used to belong to Hawkeye." Kate's lips twitched. "I got it from Cap when they first admitted we might not be simply meddling kids after all. I lost it in a challenge to Clint when he came back from dead, but after Tommy and I stole it back, he let me keep it."

"He came back from dead." And she said it like it wasn't the strangest thing in the entire world. "Right. That's… interesting."

"He's not the only one." She shrugged. "I'm not saying it happens every day or anything, but the big names never seem to stay gone. I inherited his code name, too, but now that he's back there's two of us."

"I'm amazed that there are two archers good enough to be considered superheroes in your world." He blinked as he realized how his words could be construed, and hurried to explain. "I mean, I actually think it's amazing. Most people put so much stock in firearms, you must be extraordinary to get such consideration."

"Well, there are situations where firearms wouldn't do." She looked at him, her eyes sharp. "Are you going somewhere with this?"

Bruce adjusted his glasses, sheepish. "Ah, right. I suppose I am." He drew a deep breath. "Actually, I was wondering if you would teach me."

"Teach you?" Kate blinked. "You mean archery?"

"Exactly." He nodded. "I… mediation is great, but I'm always looking for new ways to refine my focus. Tony keeps telling me that shooting can do that, but, well, neither I nor the other guy are big fans of firearms. So, Tony suggested archery, but he's busy enough as it is so I don't want to ask him to teach me, though I'm sure he knows the basics."

"Right." She nodded. "And you figured I can't be anywhere as busy as Tony is, so you could ask me?"

"Now that you put it that way, it sounds terrible." Bruce sighed.

"No, no, I don't mind at all. It makes sense, really, and it's not like I actually have much to do aside from trying to keep Tommy in line." Kate gave him a scrutinizing gaze. "Do you have any other bows around here? Mine really isn't that good for a beginner, and Tony only got me some arrows."

"I'm pretty sure Tony has some around." Bruce found his lips twitching. "Including a kid's set of suction cup arrows and a tiny bow that he plans to give Clint if he ever shows up."

"You laugh now. I know for a fact my Clint has carried out an assassination with a set like that." The weird thing was, Bruce wasn't sure if she was joking or not.

He also wasn't sure if knowing either way would have changed his opinion of her or the other Hawkeye at all.

"So." She set a hand on her hip. "If you know where Tony keeps those other bows, lead the way and we'll find a good one for you to start with. Tommy's trying to see how many levels Tetris has and Billy and Teddy found some podcast they both like, so I don't have anything else to do for the next couple of hours at least."

"Ah, I don't want to be a bother." Nevertheless, he smiled at her. "Thank you. I do appreciate it."

"As I said, I don't have much else to do. Besides," she returned his smile, "I'm always ready to spread some appreciation of the finer fields in the superhero business."

"Duly noted." He inclined his head for a bit. "Let's go. The weapon cabinet is this way."

Infinitely better than firearms.

*

Tony raised his eyebrows as yet another perfect score hit the screen. "I didn't know these games went that fast."

"They don't, not usually." Billy had curled up on one of the couches with his head in Teddy's lap, both watching Tommy speeding through some rhythm game they had ordered. Kate was reading a book in an armchair, only occasionally looking up at her boyfriend's game. "Tommy asked JARVIS to hack the game."

"Right." Of course. JARVIS truly could do anything. "Is that why the music sounds so stupid?"

"Yeah." Teddy chuckled. "It's not exactly designed for this speed, but Tommy apparently hears it more or less like normal when he's sped up to a sufficient level."

"That is both awesome and physically questionable. I mean, the length of the sound waves doesn't actually change."

"I love how you get stuck on that as questionable but seem to have more or less accepted that I can create electricity."

"Hey, I can understand electricity. Way I understand it, there's some heretofore unidentified energy that you call magic or x-gene or whatever, and you have a mysterious ability to convert that into a form of energy that can be observe through known means. That's just fine. Someone's senses working at a different speed? That, I have trouble with. Reflexes are mainly limited by the speed of electric signals in the nervous system and the ability of our cells to process those signals. It shouldn't be possible for him to process them that much faster."

"And the part where he can run fast enough not to sink in water yet doesn't suffer any impact injuries if he comes to a stop within three steps?" Billy grinned at him. It was good to see he was finally starting to relax a bit around him, even if it had taken a few weeks for that to happen.

"That part I'm choosing to ignore with extreme prejudice. Besides, I'm yet to see that actually happen." Tony paused. "And no, that doesn't mean he should go to the pool to demonstrate."

"We wouldn't want you to get scientist headache." Teddy chuckled. "Don't stress too much about it. Most scientists in our world have come to the conclusion that there is no rational way to explain most of the powers enabled by the X gene, never mind the part where one identified gene can manifest in so many different ways."

"Eh, that's not my field in any case, I'm not a biologist." Tony flipped through another page of reports from the R&D on his tablet. Since his visit there earlier in the week they had been somewhat more sensible, but there was still a lot he was going to have to work on. This was what he got for actually trusting them to work on their own for a while, the idiots.

"Yes, well, my point was just that it'd actually be pretty strange if you managed to explain it all away all of a sudden." Teddy shrugged. "Besides, if you want to argue about physics, how about growing and shrinking mass for someone like Hulk?"

"That, young man, is not a valid question. Simply asking that presupposes there is a logical explanation for someone actually being able to transform into a completely different being in the first place, and then return to normal. When you take that into account, some fluctuating mass isn't that strange, fundamental laws of the universe be damned. Maybe it gets stored in another dimension, or there's a constant shift between the unexplained mass and the unobserved magic energy."

"You know, sometimes I think the most important ability for a scientist is to find explanations for the holes in the data." Kate paused. "Come to think of it, do you think Reed Richards exists here?"

"Reed?" Tony's head immediately snapped toward her. "Sure he does, he's an asshole. Why, you know him?"

"Well, in our world, he's kind of a hero, too." Billy gave him a curious look. "Has he ever been to space, here?"

"Once, I think. Took some unqualified assistants along and almost got them all killed. Somehow he still gets to call himself a scientist without getting laughed out of the room, though that's probably simply because his ego's too big to pass through doorways most of the time." And yes, he knew it was hypocritical of him to say that, but so what. Reed was not only full of himself and his genius, he was also enough of an asshole that even Pepper disliked him. Of course, the somewhat chivalrous misogynistic streak might have contributed to that. At least Steve was working on his similar problems.

"That's interesting." Teddy ran a hand through Billy's hair. "In our world, that trip gave the four of them super powers. They're one of the most well-known super teams."

"And that's how you know about them?" Of course Reed was a hero. He always had to get a shot at everything Tony tried, too.

"Well, mostly. We've had some brushes with them. Let's just say we're not exactly fans, either." Billy made a face. "Well, not fans of Reed, anyway. Sue's kind of all right, and Johnny's totally cool. Ben Grimm's not too bad, either, once you get to know him."

"You know him?" Kate blinked. "I didn't know that."

"Yeah, well, I've met him at a couple of times at Shadowcat's Christmas parties." At Kate's questioning gaze, Billy chuckled. "Not actual Christmas parties. Well, not Christmas-y ones. She has a tradition of inviting all the Jewish superheroes over for Chinese food while everyone else is busy with Santa and stuff like that; I've been on the invitation list the last couple of years."

"Right." Tony sighed. "Don't mind me. I'll just be sitting here, appreciating the fact that there are enough superheroes in your world that the minorities are numerous enough to have their own parties."

"Yes, well, our grandfather was one of the first well-known mutants, so there's been Jewish representation in the super community pretty much always. Kitty's been around quite a while, too." Something in Billy's tone told Tony he wasn't getting the whole truth, but he supposed that was just to be expected. It wasn't like he could demand the kids to give him every last detail of their personal lives.

"Still. I mean, when I started out, Fury did tell me I wasn't the only superhero out there, but I haven't seen any evidence yet that I wasn't indeed the first one since Cap went into ice. And then you come over here and claim to have grown up in a world full of people that here have been strictly the stuff of comic books and the weirder kind of action movies."

"Yes, well, it's a very different world." Billy chuckled. "Did I mention the part where we have a cousin who's a moon princess?"

"See, this is exactly the problem." Tony pointed a finger at him. "I don't even know if you're being serious or shitting me right now."

"I'm pretty sure she doesn't live on the moon anymore, if that helps." Teddy gave him an innocent look. It was disturbingly effective.

"No, that doesn't really help. Especially not the 'anymore' part." Tony sighed. "I'd say I pity my counterpart for having to deal with all that shit, but then from what I've understood he's an asshole, so he probably deserves it all."

"I'm not sure if you should be saying that." Billy raised his eyebrows.

"What? I'm not obligated to like him just because he's me. And, yeah, I'm an asshole, too, but there's different levels of asshole. If I never reach the level my other self seems to be at, I'll be damn happy."

"I suppose that's something to strive towards." Teddy paused. "What exactly do you know about the other you?"

"Kate and Tommy filled me in on the basics of why you might not like me." Tony shrugged. "For the record, I disagree with his actions. I can get being practical, but I'm not exactly a big fan of punishing people for their parents' crimes. Innocent until proven guilty, and so on. If I went around locking people up for what they have the potential to do, I'd have to put myself behind the bars and throw away the key."

"Yes, well, if I have half of my mother's potential, I could probably wipe out the world." Billy went for a snarky tone, almost sarcastic, but Tony knew enough about such tricks to detect the hint of fear underneath. Even here, where his parents might have never even existed, he was afraid for being judged for them.

"My old man had a part in Project Manhattan. I dare you to top that."

"You've got to admit, that's pretty hard to surpass," Kate cut in before Billy could retort. "Besides, your boyfriend's descended from interplanetary war lords and you don't seem to have a problem with that."

"That's entirely different." Billy sighed. "That's not about individual potential."

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure I have more than the potential to level a small city on my own if I wanted to, and I'm yet to do that. You don't strike me as the type to go wiping out entire worlds just for fun, either, so I'm not going to treat you like you would." Tony shrugged. "Maybe I'm just too young and idealistic and when I reach the same age as other me I'll think differently, but I'm pretty hopeful Pepper will give me a good slap before ever letting me do that. Or possibly throw me out of the window. I'm pretty sure I'd deserve it if she ever went that far."

"I suppose that might make a difference." Teddy's tone was somewhat cautious. Interesting.

"So, I take it the other me doesn't have a Pepper by his side."

"Well, there is Pepper Potts in our world, too. She's just… not with our Tony." Billy gave a small shrug that as made somewhat awkward by his position. "From what I've seen, relationships are rarely constant between worlds."

"Oh?" Tony had to admit that made him curious. "Dare I ask?"

"Well, there is at least one world where you married Cap, but you were a woman there so I'm not sure if that counts." Billy smirked. "And in another I'm pretty sure you hooked up with Black Widow for a while."

"Okay, I'm not even going to try to decide which one of those images is more unsettling. In fact, I'm shaken enough that I won't even ask just how you would know any of that, anyway." Tony shook his head. "So out there I'm either a woman, self-destructive, or simply a bastard. Got to say it's a strange day when it seems the best option is for me to have boobs."

"Oh, please." And suddenly Tommy was there. Tony realized belatedly that the sped-up music had stopped for now, the game abandoned as the boy appeared beside the couch. "Like you've never imagined that."

"As a fantasy? Sure, there's very little that hasn't crossed my mind when it comes to sex. On a permanent basis, I'm very happy with my current parts, thanks." He paused. "Don't tell me your world's got some kind of temporary sex change spell or something."

"Well, I probably could do it if I tried to and had my full power, but frankly that seems creepy. Unless someone really wanted it, of course, though… nope, still creepy." Billy made a face. "Nope, never heard of anyone but shapeshifters doing that."

"Xavin seems to be doing pretty well, though." Tommy shrugged. "I mean, considering he was apparently born with a dick but Karolina calls Xavin her girlfriend." He paused. "Wait. Do Skrulls have dicks? I mean, they're basically big lizards, right? Do lizards do that?"

"Considering female Skrulls have breasts, I'm pretty sure there's more detail to this than I want to contemplate." Kate sighed. "And why are we discussing Skrull genitalia? Something you'd like to tell me?"

"Just curious, that's all. Maybe I should ask Xavin the next time we see him. Her. Whichever her or she happens to be then." Tommy shrugged. "Anyway, I'm starving. Anyone up for raiding the kitchen?"

"I suppose it couldn't hurt." Teddy glanced down at his boyfriend. "Bee? You hungry?"

"I could eat." Billy sat up, raking a hand through his hair. Before he stood up, he looked at Tony. "For the record," his tone was perfectly serious, "if it's Pepper that's made you like this, I kind of want to ask JARVIS to send her a big gift basket."

"Don't bother. JARVIS sends those regularly anyway. I figure I do stupid stuff often enough that no matter when I give her something nice, it was about time anyway." Tony waved his hand. "Now, shoo. I actually do need to get this done today, and I'm too lazy to move, so you kids have to go entertain yourselves somewhere else."

The kids did leave the room, chatting among themselves. Tony kept his eyes on the tablet, staring at the schematics he barely even saw.

He had never even realized just how much he had to thank Pepper for.


	7. Cloaked Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a chat with Steve, Billy gets the idea to recreate something familiar. As he then talks with Tony, they both get something to think about. (Also, Tony gives relationship advice. It may or may not be good.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason there was no update yesterday was because I updated my older WiP, [With a Team of Heroes](http://archiveofourown.org/works/809591), instead. I hope you enjoy this one, though!

It was, Steve noticed, all too obvious the children were watching television. Long before he even reached the living room door, even ears not quite as sensitive as his would have picked up the signs. The sounds of the television didn't give many clues per se, the program not one he would have recognized, but nobody else was quite that loud when they watched it. True, Tony sometimes got rather close with his more indignant comments, ones which always amused Steve even though he really should have considered them unreasonable, but not even he would be making quite this much noise. That, and his cries tended to be more about facts that were inconsistent with his view of reality, not calls for some idiot to be taken off the show before they hurt everyone's sense of aesthetics beyond hope of repair. Which, now that he thought about it, was a rather strange comment to hear in a young man's voice.

"Having fun?" He leaned against the doorway, taking in the scene. It was almost adorable, the way the teens were all huddled on the biggest couch, all turned towards the big screen on the wall. If nothing else, he was relieved to see they were feeling enough at home to relax like that. While their appearance was still mostly a mystery and any possible return methods even more so, he would have hated for them to feel awkward and uncomfortable the entire time until they managed to get home.

"No." Billy had crossed his arms over his chest, sulking. He was, Steve remembered, the one who had been shouting the loudest. "The judges are obviously idiots."

"You're just saying that because you're biased." Tommy nudged his brother's side with his elbow. "Come on, admit it. The best design won."

"Oh, please. Like you have an actual opinion," Billy snorted. "You're just rooting for the fastest designer every time."

"Well, yeah. Those slowpokes should just get thrown right off for not even managing to finish." Tommy threw a piece of popcorn at the screen. Steve half expected him to get up and run to catch it before it hit the floor, but for once, he stayed put.

"What exactly is this program?" Steve walked closer, looking at the screen where a number of increasingly outlandish costumes were being paraded along a walkway. "I don't think I've seen it before."

"Project Runway." Teddy sounded slightly amused if anything, an arm around Billy's shoulders as though to anchor him in place lest he run off to attack the screen. "It's reality TV, a number of aspiring designers compete for the chance to design their own collection."

"Billy's obsessed," Kate added with an almost cheerful tone. She was curled up in the corner of the couch, looking quite comfortable right next to the bickering twins. "When he found out you have it here, too, he wanted to watch everything he could find to see if it's different in this dimension. And since JARVIS can find just about anything, well, we've been marathoning a lot of clothes lately."

"Well, Billy has, with me for company," Teddy added. "Tommy and Kate just occasionally join us to mock the worst designs."

"Well, some of them definitely are worth mocking." Tommy snorted. "I mean, you can't send an unfinished dress down the runway! Of course the judges are going to notice!"

"So, let me get this straight." Steve leaned his hands on the back of the couch. "You are watching a TV series where people make dresses, and those who make the best dresses get to go on and make more dresses."

"Well, yes. And no. It's not always dresses." Billy fidgeted, obviously well aware that was not Steve's point, here. "But, yeah, I suppose that's the gist of it."

"Billy's obviously got an atrocious taste," Tommy quipped. "He always ends up rooting for the designer that's going to get dropped in two episodes at most."

"Yeah, well, you're the one who's watched all the seasons on fast forward just so you can tease me about how it's going to end." Billy gave his brother a dirty glare.

"Hey, if I'm going to get dragged into looking at dresses every now and then, I can just as well have fun with it." Tommy shrugged. "It's the only way I can cling to my masculinity."

"Okay, that's enough." Steve kept his tone friendly, though he also did his best to put some weight of authority behind his words. "So, you're interested in this kind of thing, Billy?"

"Ah, yeah." There was a slight tint to his cheeks, though whether he was embarrassed by the subject or the attention, Steve wasn't entirely sure. "I used to sew, back home. Well, a way back, anyway. I'd mostly make cosplay costumes — that's when you dress up as a character," he added for Steve's benefit. "I ended up customizing one of those for my first superhero costume. Kate got us our second set, though."

"And after that he'd figured out enough magic he didn't have to actually do any manual sewing," Teddy added. "This one time we all went to Bavaria and he put us in appropriate clothes in the blink of an eye."

"In what he thought were appropriate clothes," Tommy corrected, quick as ever. "I still haven't lived down that particular embarrassment."

"Probably still better for visiting grandmother's grave than our costumes." Billy paused for a moment, his eyes cast aside as though deep in thought, but then grinned. "I also helped Teddy make his first costume."

"Yeah. The pants weren't really a problem, but thanks to Billy I didn't have to go around shirtless." Teddy chuckled. "It's one definite plus I have over Hulk."

"Well, I don't know. I rather like it when you're shirtless." Billy grinned at Teddy, then seemed to remember Steve was still there, as the previous tint on his cheeks turned into a full blush. "Uh. That is… I mean…"

"I haven't sewed in a while, myself," Steve said, as eager to change the subject as Billy was. It was nice to see them so happy together, yes, but he'd rather not think about the details of the relationship between their guests. "I used to do it all the time, back before the war. It was cheaper than buying new clothes. After I joined the army, though, I've mostly just done minor repairs."

"I haven't done anything in ages." Billy sighed, then turned contemplative. "Hey, do you think I could get my hands on any fabric around here? I mean, I know we're not supposed to walk around the city or anything, but frankly I'm getting bored here. No offense to the entertainment system or anything, but it's been a while already, and I can't even practice my magic to pass the time."

"Well, I don't think there's anything around here right now. However, if you ask Tony, I'm sure he can arrange something," Steve assured him. "Sometimes he gets me things just because I've mentioned that I like something, which in his logic translates to my needing to have that something as soon as possible. If you ask him, he'll definitely get it for you."

"Uh. I wouldn't want to impose like that." The blush was threatening to return.

"Oh, I'm sure it wouldn't be any trouble. Don't tell him I said this, but Tony loves buying stuff for people. He's just not very good at figuring out what to buy most people, so giving him a hint or two wouldn't be a bad idea." Steve winked. "I haven't lived here that long myself, and I've already heard a few stories about his atrocious gifting skills."

"I, um, might do that."

"Okay, this is getting a bit too warm and fuzzy for me." Tommy got up to his feet and stretched. "Laughing at stupid designs is fun enough, but if you're actually going to talk about stitches and seams, I need a break."

Tommy was gone in a flash, almost too fast for Steve's eyes to follow. Kate got up as well, sighing. "I suppose I'd better go and make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble."

"We are still talking about Tommy, right?" Billy raised his eyebrows. "The guy who blew up the United Nations building so the bad guys couldn't get it?"

"He did what?" Steve's eyes widened. That… didn't sound good.

"It's fine, Cap, we put it back together afterwards." Kate grinned. "I'm more worried about him destroying any load-bearing walls while we're all still inside."

"Yeah, I suppose that's a worthy thing to worry about." Teddy nodded. "You think you can distract him sufficiently?"

"I'll think of a way." Kate waved her hand before heading after Tommy.

Steve looked at the two remaining boys. "I was serious, you know," he said. "If you think it'd help you pass the time, just ask Tony. He'll get someone to get you what you need."

"I, ah, I'll keep that in mind." Billy paused. "Um. You wanna join us? The next episode's starting in a moment."

Steve thought about that. He'd planned on going to his room and doing some drawing, sidetracked on his way back from the gym by the noise the kids had been making. His fingers were itching to draw, had been ever since he'd seen Tony tinkering in his workshop earlier, brows furrowed in concentration in that way that formed tiny wrinkles between his eyes. He'd been hoping for some peace and quiet, perhaps, while he worked on recreating every last line of the face he had long since committed to memory anyway.

Billy was leaning against Teddy, now, the arm settled even more comfortably over his shoulders, a small smile on his lips. Teddy turned towards him, face half hidden in dark hair as he murmured a word or two that Steve did his best not to catch.

"Sure, if you don't mind," Steve heard himself saying, and, yeah, that was a good enough answer, too. "I'll just go and get my sketchbook; I rather want to draw."

If the couple that had appeared in his sketchbook by the next time an angry boy declared the judges idiotic had no particular identifying features, just a big, blond guy holding a lean dark-haired one, well, nobody was ever going to see it anyway to ask for an explanation.

*

It had, Billy realized with something of a start, been ages since he had last dealt with fabric like this. Sure, he'd still thought about such things, thought about tweaking his costume or more recently this cosplay or that, but he hadn't actually done any sewing. Even after he'd left the superhero days behind him, it had been all too easy to just magic his clothes to be like he wanted. Besides, if he didn't use his magic every now and then, it tended to build up and burst out at the most inopportune moments, and clothing magic was more or less the least harmful outlet he could think of. That, and the mere thought of actually sewing had reminded him too much of his last project, of the cape he had spent so many hours on, the number of times he'd pricked his fingers while finishing the costume.

Now, the reminders were quite extraneous. He was in another world, another dimension at that; it was impossible not to remember everything he'd chosen to leave behind, would have been even if he hadn't been currently living in the Avengers Tower. (Avengers Tower. Even after everything, Billy's inner geek fanboy managed a small squeal at that. At least he managed to keep it inside by now, which he had declared a small personal victory.) Besides, there was more to those memories than the fear and pain, more than grief and betrayal and standing before a grave. He supposed it was all for the better that he got back in touch with the better memories as well.

The fabric he'd been given was nice, a heavy, yet soft red weight in his hands, so much more than he could have possibly needed. There were other fabrics as well, all the colors he'd requested and so many materials he wouldn't have even known what to do with, all delivered the next morning after he'd said a word to Tony about possibly maybe wanting to try recreating their costumes. He wasn't sure what had warranted the sudden generosity, aside from the fact that it did seem anything but unexpected for Tony Stark to enjoy flaunting his wealth. Perhaps it was the fact that he was creating, making something with his hands. He supposed Tony could appreciate that. At least this Tony could, the one who came to breakfast table with motor oil on his face and a burn mark on the side of his hand, who treated his robots like they were his children and scolded them accordingly if they couldn't keep the light still when he needed it.

Whatever the reason, he had gotten the fabrics, the fabrics and yarns and other materials, and a brand new sewing machine besides. He was pretty sure he couldn't have used even half of the functions on this space-age cousin to his mother's old but still functional model. Not that he'd have to worry about that for a moment yet; he had a lot of work to do before he got anywhere near that part. There was designing, and the patterns had to be made, and then he would have to cut and pin and try it on and do a thousand other little things before he could get to the actual seams. So much to do, so many things for his fingers to get to while his mind tried its best not to do anything at all.

The cape. He would make the cape first of all, a simple form and familiar enough. He'd made the first one himself, for a Thor cosplay what seemed like forever ago. It would be easy to recreate, and the weight of it on his shoulders would be a comfort, not that he would have admitted that had anyone asked right now.

Teddy had been there at first, commented on the fabrics and tried to get him to talk, but he had eventually left when it had become clear Billy was going to spend quite a while just running his hands over the fabrics, imagining the process of turning them into something actually wearable. He would have felt some form of guilt at that, would have felt like a bad boyfriend most likely, but he trusted that Teddy would understand. Teddy always understood what was going on with him, sometimes better so than Billy himself did, and certainly faster.

With an idle thought, he focused, trying to think of his costume. He imagined it, every last aspect, the weight and the form and the sensation of the fabric against his skin, the way the cloak sometimes felt rough on his bare arms, how the costume clung to his skin when it was wet. However, no matter how he tried to imagine it, how hard he concentrated, there was nothing. He was still wearing the same hoodie and jeans he had put on in the morning, a hint of Teddy's scent in the hood as he turned his head to the side, a memory from the night before when they had fallen asleep against each other. There wasn't even the usual tingle of magic within him, no sign that anything would have been even trying to make itself known.

His magic had not returned yet, his costume lost, back in his home and oh god he missed his home. All he had was an armful of heavy red fabric and the memory of turning that weight into something he would be happy to walk around wearing.

Blinking away any errant thoughts, Billy laid out the fabric on the floor and got to work.

*

There was, Tony decided, nothing better than a nice, cold drink after a long day.

Okay, so perhaps there were some things better than that, like Pepper and the feeling of inventing something new, but right now Pepper was on the opposite coast and he was all out of ideas for the moment. So, a drink it was.

Getting himself a glass, Tony headed for the roof. He liked the view, when it wasn't obstructed by alien devices intent on bringing destruction down upon his fair city, and after a long day of meetings and arguments and more meetings and why the fuck did people think he actually possessed any social skills beyond seduction, honestly, some open air and a sense of superiority were exactly what he needed. He'd go up, have his drink while watching the city light up even more as night started to fall, and then maybe go and call Pepper. Assuming, of course, that she wasn't in a meeting and would actually pick up his call. It was worth a try, at least.

However, when he actually got to the roof, it became clear enough he wouldn't get a moment of alone time, at least.

Someone was standing at the edge, looking out into the city, right in front of the railing Pepper had demanded Tony to include because apparently having people stupid enough to fall off the edge cleaned off the gene pool was not actually a favor to society. He didn't recognize the figure instantly, only noticing the red cape at first. He was pretty sure it was a cape, at least, the long fabric twirling slightly in the wind around the figure's shoulders. For a brief moment he almost thought Thor was back, had somehow managed to return to Earth without another big lightning show, hadn't immediately rushed in and boomed about wanting to see his Lady Jane or his esteemed shield brothers or other such things. However, this figure was far too small to be Thor, and had dark hair besides.

Messy dark hair, too short to be a sudden visit from a newly escaped Loki or something equally nightmarish, not Tony himself as far as he was aware. One of the kids, then. Billy? Billy. Wiccan, the one who defied everything that was good and holy about physics and the rules of reality.

"I see you actually got something done from all that stuff." The kid didn't startle, which Tony supposed was a good thing. Railings or no, they were pretty far up and he was standing pretty close to the edge.

"Well, something, yeah." The kid shrugged, not turning to look at him as Tony walked up to him, glass in hand. "Still a lot left to do if I want to actually recreate our costumes, though." He had ordinary clothes underneath, Tony noted as he looked at him, the clash between the casual clothing and the regal red cape almost startling if not for the fact that Tony himself had been known to crash even more disparate styles together with great delight.

"So is that what you do want to do, then?" Which he supposed was as good a question as any. It was polite to make small talk, after all. "Your costumes?"

"I suppose." Billy's fingers ran along the railing, tapping a nervous tattoo on the surface of the metal. "I mean, even if we're not doing any hero stuff anymore, it's… comforting, I guess." He pulled the cape closer around himself with one hand, fingers curling around the heavy fabric as though afraid it might get carried away entirely with the wind.

"Comfort's good sometimes, I've been told." Tony took a small swig of his drink. "So, what came first for you guys? Being heroes or being friends?" He wasn't actually interested, of course he wasn't, that kind of sappiness was unimportant. However, he couldn't help but be curious. Their so-called team had been thrown together more by chance than by choice, and it probably wouldn't hurt to hear how other groups had handled that.

"Well, kind of both." The fingers of one hand were still tapping away at the railing, now settling into an identifiable pattern that Tony found himself following without much conscious thought. "I mean… Teddy and I, we were already kind of getting together when we got recruited. Kate pretty much forced her way into the team not long after, and Tommy… well, we got Tommy later. We needed another hero, but we only found him so we had to make do." There was a smile on his lips, one that Tony recognized as being similar to what was sometimes on Rhodey's face when he was talking about Tony. So, fond teasing, then. Good; the last thing he needed was teen drama under his roof.

"Recruited?" Because that had been the one part of that to catch his attention. "Who the hell recruits teenagers?"

"Another teenager, obviously." Billy's eyes fell down, his gaze trailing along the streets far, far below. "It was… it feels like forever ago, now. All we could think about was being heroes, making a difference, that kind of thing." He turned to look at Tony, at last, and there was a kind of wistful amusement in his eyes that seemed to belong in the gaze of someone much, much older than he was, could possibly be. "Looking back, it's like we were just little kids playing dress-up."

"What changed that, then?" What the hell had made these kids look like men coming back from war, sometimes, when they thought nobody was watching?

"Many things." There was a sigh, almost imperceptible. "You know. Failing to stop a friend from turning into an evil megalomaniac. Torture and imprisonment. Betrayal, pain, a couple of funerals, saving the world and realizing nothing has changed."

"Right." Well, he supposed that would do it. "Is that why you stopped?" Just small talk. He didn't actually care. Didn't.

"Nah. That would be pretty much all of those within the span of a couple of days, minus some of the torture stuff, and realizing I might have actually made things worse for everyone."

"I know the feeling, believe me." Probably in quite a different way, but still. "If there's that much traumatic shit behind that, why'd you want to wear the cape again? Bad enough that you actually made it by hand?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Billy chuckled, though there was little amusement in it. "Sometimes, I just want to play dress-up again."

"Fair enough." Tony paused. "I'd offer to get you a drink, too, but pretty sure Cap would bust my ass for that. And, yes, I am sure he would know. It's like the man has a radar for less than perfectly moral things happening on his turf."

"That's fine. Teddy would probably send me to the couch if I accepted such an offer, and since our room actually doesn't have a couch, that'd be pretty uncomfortable."

"Oh? Another blonde do-gooder, then?" Tony flashed him a grin. "Think they're from the same factory?"

Billy snorted. "Well, I can't vouch for Cap, but I'm reasonably sure Teddy's all-natural." There was a peculiar twitch to his face, as though he weren't sure if he should have been embarrassed at his own words or not. Apparently, he had settled on not. Good for him.

"Yeah, I think I'll just take your word for that." Tony took another swig, letting the alcohol rest on his tongue for a moment before sending it burning down his throat. "I'm pretty sure you should go and give him some attention soon, by the way. If nothing else, he's going to worry about you standing here all by yourself like you're going to try flying."

"Nah. I tried that all safe and sound in our room, not that it worked there, either." And of course he was supposed to be able to fly. No repulsors, not even wings, just… magic. Brilliant. "Wait. Why is Tony Stark giving me relationship advice?"

"Hey, I'm not entirely hopeless at this stuff." Well, sometimes he wasn't. At least once or twice, he hadn't been. "I have actually been dating the same person for well over a year, you know. Close to two years, soon."

Now, the kid looked at him with another strange expression. Whatever his face was trying to communicate, impressed was not it.

"What?" Tony frowned, then thought about it. From what he'd heard, the kids had managed to be heroes for a while, and had been out of the business for another while. And if the two had already been together when they'd started with the heroics… "Oh, I get it. You've got more experience with a semi-stable relationship than I do." Which, admittedly, didn't take much. Except the kid wasn't even old enough to vote, yet.

"Three years." And now the expression, whatever it was, turned into a sort-of-smile, the look in his eyes softening. "Engaged for a year."

"Yeah, right, figures." Tony paused. "Wait. You're engaged?"

"Well, yes. I mean, it's not that serious or anything, we're really not ready for actual marriage yet, but he did kind of propose half by accident." And that was a full smile, now, one that would have seemed more at home on the face of someone who'd just recently met the love of their life and actually believed in shit like that. "And I did say yes."

"Good for you, then." He just hoped it wouldn't blow up in their little young faces. Even with his less than stellar track record he knew that something like that going wrong could ruin a guy's entire dating career.

"Yeah, actually, it is." He tuned the smile down a bit, but it didn't look like it was going to disappear any time soon. "I suppose I'd better go find Teddy, though. He sometimes gets weird ideas when he's left unattended for too long."

"Just don't inform me if he's up to something weird already. Unless it causes structural damage, JARVIS can handle it." Tony paused. "Or Cap. I'm sure Cap would love to set you guys straight if you get up to anything less than wholesome."

"I'll keep that in mind." Billy turned to go, the cape around him whipping in the wind, the approaching light-filtered dusk making it almost hint towards purple. For a moment Tony could have almost sworn it was actually billowing up against the wind, drawing the outline of someone older and grayer and with much more weight on his shoulders than the heavy fabric and the loss of a friend or two could possibly have warranted.

Then Billy was gone, and so was the image, but Tony decided he needed another drink, anyway.


	8. In the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The arrival of new guests to the Tower does not go as smoothly as Tony might have preferred. After the worst mess is over with, Clint has questions, and Steve blushes.

Billy was sitting in the middle of the room.

This in itself wasn't truly out of the ordinary; it wasn't that rare for one or both of them to sprawl on the floor to read comics or do something else utterly unproductive. However, it was somewhat less customary to find Billy sitting there with his eyes closed, legs crossed and hands resting on his knees. Teddy wasn't quite sure if he should speak or if that would break his concentration on whatever it was he was doing. Therefore, he just walked quietly into the room, sitting down on the bed.

After a moment during which he wondered if Billy had even noticed his arrival, Teddy was almost startled as Billy suddenly opened his eyes, looking directly at him. "Uh. Hi."

"Hi." Billy smiled a bit, and for a moment, there was a flicker of blue in his eyes that made Teddy's breath catch in his throat. It had been far too long since he had seen that. "Something the matter?"

"Oh, no. I was just wondering if you'd like to come see a movie. Sorry if I interrupted something."

"I think Tommy and Kate were planning on a movie marathon tonight. From what I understood, they actually want us there instead of just pretending to ask so they can claim it's totally not their version of a date." Billy stretched a bit. How long had he been sitting here, anyway?

"Well, that sounds cool. Assuming we can agree on even a single movie that all four of us want to watch, never mind several." Teddy paused. "Should I ask what you're doing?"

"Uh. Meditating? Kinda. I've been trying to get in touch with my magic again."

"And meditating helps with that?"

"Well, I figured it couldn't hurt at least." Billy shrugged. "I mean, I pretty much know what using my magic feels like. Maybe, if I focus on trying to get the feeling right, I can get my magic to work, too."

"And is that getting you anywhere?" He thought of the tiny spark he had seen earlier, but didn't mention it. Billy knew himself better than anyone could see, after all.

"Kind of. It's still not quite back to normal, but I know it's not entirely gone, at least." Billy smiled, and there was such relief and delight in his expression that Teddy couldn't help but smile right back. "Like… it's a faint light in a dark room. And that's not the same as having the lights on, but it's infinitely better than total darkness. And the more I keep heading towards it, the closer it gets."

"That's great." Teddy slid down from the bed to the floor to get on the same level with Billy. "Can you do anything with it yet?"

"Not really. I figured I'd start from the things I learned first, so for now I've been focusing on trying to get myself in the air."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." He smiled. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Would you be offended if I said not to distract me?"

"Nah, I'd be pretty proud." Teddy grinned. "After all, all evidence points to it that you're one of the foremost magic users in this reality, so being able to potentially distract you is a pretty big deal." Which was mainly because they weren't sure if there were any other magic users in this world, but still.

"Says the direct heir to an interplanetary empire." Billy's eyes fell closed again. "But hey, a bunch of ordinary kids wouldn't have made it this far."

"Oh, definitely not." He paused. "You want me to go away? Because I totally can if you need to concentrate."

"You were the one who helped me figure all this out in the first place. I really don't see how having you here could be a bad thing." Teddy could have sworn there was the faintest blue glow about Billy. "Though I'll have to ask that if you're here, you don't talk too much. My grasp keeps slipping even without any outside interference."

"So, quiet. Got it." If it helped Billy, he could stay silent the rest of the day if need be.

It rather helped that Billy's peaceful, untroubled face lined with a hint of magic was one of the most beautiful sights he knew.

*

"What do you mean, we're out of popcorn again?"

"Hey, don't look at me." Billy raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "I think we all know Tommy's the huge eater here."

"I think I've earned a bit more than most." Tommy's hand darted out to catch the last bits of popcorn from the bottom of the bowl. "Who's the one who keeps making more?"

"It's not that much of a sacrifice when you can run there and back in less time than it takes for one bag to pop," Teddy pointed out. "And you would eat just as much if someone else made it."

"And yet, nobody else has volunteered, so your point is moot."

"Arguing isn't getting us anywhere," Kate sighed. "We'll just have to go and get some more before we start the next movie."

"The lady speaks good sense." Tommy nodded. "Movies without popcorn suck."

"I thought you'd been busy telling us just how much the movie sucks regardless of your snack intake." Billy stretched himself, sitting up from where he'd been lying on the floor, half draped over Teddy's lap. They all were sprawled on the floor of Kate's room, gathered for their midnight movie marathon. She didn't understand why it had to be her room in particular, but Tommy kept insisting her TV was the best.

"Because if I forget to focus, it's all stupid slow motion. You know what it's like to watch a movie going too slow? It's like a fucking slide show. You'd be bored to death, too."

"Not my fault you have an atrocious attention span." Billy picked up the empty bowl and stood up, wavering a bit on his feet. "Woah."

"You all right?" Teddy frowned in concern, reaching a hand to steady his boyfriend.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just stood up too fast." Billy flashed him a reassuring grin. "I'll go get us more snacks so Tommy can't complain about always being on duty. I expect you all to have settled on the next movie by the time I get back."

"If you're sure." There was still a hint of concern on Teddy's face, but he was smiling. "I'll be sure to defend our geeky tastes against the uneducated masses."

"My hero." Billy grinned and headed for the door. "Stand firm, my knight~!"

"You know, I think I should be insulted that you're referring to Kate and me as masses," Tommy remarked lazily. "You're the biggest one out of us, too."

"If there was any popcorn left, I'd throw it at you." Teddy was grinning, though. "So. Anyone got any suggestions for the next one?"

As it turned out, there were several suggestions, most of them clashing with each other. Tommy vetoed any Star Wars movies on account of them being a series and thus taking all night, because apparently it was impossible to watch only one part of a series. Teddy disagreed with him rather loudly, making Kate grateful that there was nobody else on the floor. Her own suggestions were not met with much enthusiasm, which obviously did not keep her from pushing them anyway.

They had yet to arrive at a conclusion as to what they were to watch, though, as the now familiar voice of JARVIS cut in. "My apologies for interrupting, but it seems there is something the matter with Master William."

"What?" Teddy's head immediately shot up, a wild look in his eyes. "What happened?"

Kate felt a chill. Come to think of it, it had been some time now since Billy left to get more popcorn. "JARVIS. Where is Billy?"

"In the kitchen, Miss Kate. He appears to have collapsed."

"And now you tell us?" Teddy's cry marked the moment of Tommy vanishing in a blur. Teddy was on his feet a moment after that, heading towards the door after him.

"Miss Kate? I must warn you, there are special circumstances to this matter."

"And what are those?" She really, really didn't like the sound of this.

"As it happens, Master William is not alone in the kitchen."

That… didn't sound good. That really, really didn't sound good, especially not with two panicked boys heading that way. Though JARVIS did not elaborate, Kate grabbed her bow before heading out of the door. If it had been any of the other regular inhabitants, she trusted JARVIS would have said so.

The only reason she caught up with Teddy was because JARVIS made the elevator wait for her before heading to the common floor. Of course, they both were there well behind Tommy, as evident from the yelling they heard from the kitchen long before they were close enough to see anything.

"JARVIS?" Kate asked as she ran down the corridor. "Are any of the adults up?"

"Sir is in his workshop at the moment. I have already alerted him to the situation, and he is on his way." Well, that was good. Better than the alternative, at least.

As Kate came to the doorway of the kitchen, a few steps behind Teddy, she came to a halt. Indeed, Tommy and Billy were not the only ones in the kitchen. However, the other occupants of the room were not exactly what she had expected.

Tommy was at the other end of the kitchen, little more than a blur as he was running about a red-haired woman clad all in black, yelling something too fast for Kate to make out the actual words. Teddy, his form swelling and scaling over in his anger and panic, was crouched over Billy's prone form, his voice more intelligible as he in turn was shouting at a rather bewildered-looking man with light hair.

"What the Hell did you do?" Teddy demanded, gathering Billy close to himself. "I swear, if you've hurt a hair on his head…"

"We didn't do anything!" Clint protested, and God, it really was Clint, he looked different from the one she knew but it was still unmistakably Clint Barton, short hair and sharp eyes and apparently at a loss for once. "We came here just in time to see him fall over! Nat was trying to figure out what was wrong with him when mister hyperactivity there burst in through the door!"

"Tommy, calm down!" Kate barked, hoping her voice would cut through his panic. "Tommy, Teddy, they're the good guys!"

"Finally, someone with sense." Clint looked at her with clear relief. "Tell Hulk Junior here not to rip me apart, okay?"

"Teddy." She walked closer, careful as she touched his shoulder. The scales had ripped through his t-shirt, hard under her hand. "Teddy, snap out of it. They didn't hurt Billy, okay?"

"But — but Billy is —" Teddy looked up at her, eyes full of fear.

"I know, and we'll find out what's wrong with him in a minute. For now, you're not helping anyone by threatening Hawkeye, okay?"

"But I wasn't —" Then, Teddy blinked, the situation sinking in. "Oh."

"Exactly." Kate turned to where Tommy was, still bothering what appeared to be an increasingly annoyed Black Widow. "Speed! Catch!"

She wasn't entirely sure about the wisdom of what she did next, quickly drawing her bow and loosing an arrow, though she did make certain it didn't head close enough to hit either of them by accident. Thankfully, she hadn't been entirely off in her judgment. Her shout seemed to have cut through to some part of Tommy that always heard her, even if he didn't always listen. Spinning around faster than the eye could see, he stepped out of his way to catch the arrow in midair, then blinked at her. "Kate? What the —"

"I'd advice you to step away," Kate sighed. "I don't think Widow is very happy about the way you attacked her for trying to help your brother."

In a flash, Tommy was by his side. "But this is obviously their doing!" he protested. "I'm not sure what they did, but when I got here they were here. It's the only possible explanation!"

"And I told you, we got in just in time to see him collapse!" Clint protested. "Why would we attack a kid we don't even know?"

"That's what I'd fucking well like to know!" Tommy shouted. "He was just fine when he left Kate's room!"

"I'm not so sure." Kate frowned as the others turned to look at her. "I mean, he didn't look all that great when he got up back there, and he seemed a bit pale earlier." She should have taken notice then, should have asked, shouldn't have accepted his ready explanation without question. However, shoulds and should haves would not change anything. "And in any case, standing here shouting at each other isn't going to help anyone."

"Thank you, o mighty voice of reason." Clint grinned. "Just for that, I won't even ask why you happen to know our code names."

"Sadly, I'm not quite as merciful." Natasha raised an eyebrow. "I'd very much like an explanation for this. Stark's message didn't say anything about turning the Tower into a daycare."

"Well, of course not. We couldn't have Nick ruining our fun, could we?" And here was Tony at last, goggles still on his forehead, wearing a dirty t-shirt with the pale blue of the arc reactor shining through. "Now let's all calm down, okay? I really, really don't want to rebuild any more walls any time soon."

"Stark." Natasha turned toward him, now. "Explanations."

"Yeah, yeah, soon as we've got magic boy somewhere more comfortable, okay?" Tony lifted his hands. "Nobody's going to blow up anything or put holes into anyone, maybe we'll even get Cap up to mediate, and we can all discuss this like adults. Or almost-adults, as the case may be for some."

"There'd better be a damn good explanation." Tommy quivered, clearly at the ready to spring into action, but remained by her side nevertheless. "If I find out they've harmed a hair on his head…"

"You'll still stay calm and not do anything stupid," Tony finished. "And Hawkeye? Put the bow away, please. I said no holes."

Clint blinked. "But I'm not —"

"He means me." Kate lowered her bow again. "You know, I get the feeling this will be a fun little chat."

Hopefully, everyone would still be in one piece at the end of it.

*

The first thing Billy heard as he woke up was a voice that was vaguely familiar, yet not quite similar to any he'd heard before. "So you're actually telling me strange kids dropped from the ceiling and you decided to take them in, just like that?"

"Don't be ridiculous. They didn't come from the ceiling." That at least was definitely Tony. "They appeared roughly four feet off the ground."

"Yeah, because that's so much better and more reasonable. And that still doesn't change the bit where you invited them to move in."

"As I recall, I extended the same invitation to you, Francis."

That got some kind of an indignant reply, but Billy was too tired to make much sense of it. His head was in Teddy's lap, he could tell that much even without opening his eyes; the sensation was familiar enough. However, the hand resting on his shoulder was larger and harder than usual, his makeshift pillow not quite as comfortable as he was accustomed to. Teddy was Hulkling right now.

"Teddy?" he murmured, hoping for a response. "What…"

"Billy," Teddy breathed, relief obvious in his voice. "Oh, thank God, you're awake. You really worried me."

"Uh. Sorry?" Billy turned to his back, squinting up at his boyfriend's big, green face. Yup, definitely Hulkling. "What exactly happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us," Kate replied in Teddy's stead, somewhere to the side. "Apparently you passed out in the kitchen and we don't know why."

"Right." Billy closed his eyes again for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. "I'm… not too sure, either. Honestly, I was probably just that tired."

"Tired enough to faint? Will I need to have a talk with the big guy about not keeping you up all night?" Tommy, this time, somewhere close to Kate. Of course. Who else would say something like that?

"Don't be an idiot." Billy sighed, this time opening his eyes properly. "Nah, I spent most of today working on my magic. Didn't get very far, but it did wear me out pretty efficiently."

"Wait, magic?" That was a new voice, and not just to the conversation. "Is he serious?"

"Oh, believe me, he very much is." That was Tony, drawing Billy's eyes. Tony and Steve were both sitting on a couch across from them, with a familiar-looking blond man sitting on the arm rest, a red-haired woman leaning against the back of the couch, her eyes sharp as they met Billy's. "He's most likely the one we can thank for our unplanned guests."

"Oi. At least we didn't sneak in after midnight," Tommy pointed out with a somewhat offended tone. "Or do you often have world-class assassins just drop by for a chat?"

"Yes, well, they were unexpected, but not entirely unplanned," Tony replied with what was far too cheerful a tone in Billy's opinion. "I asked them to come, and told JARVIS as much, which is why they managed to get inside without tripping any alarms."

"Oh, please." The man snorted. "Like we couldn't get in without being noticed if we wanted to."

"Look, no offense to your professionalism, but this place is pretty tricked out in terms of security. Sure, if you just blast your way in you'll be here, but without alerting JARVIS? No way. Not unless you can fool heat sensors, there are those at every entrance."

"I love how you assume I'd be using an entrance." The man then turned at Billy, appearing amused at his bewilderment. "Hawkeye, reporting. Or, at least, a Hawkeye, if what the young lady here tells me is true."

"Kate? Yeah, she's Hawkeye, too." And that more or less cleared up the identity of the lovely yet menacing lady as well. "Sorry if this is rude, but when exactly did you get here? Because I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if you'd been lounging around the living room for a while."

"We got here tonight. Just in time to get threatened by your companions here for supposedly causing your collapse." Black Widow — it had to be Black Widow — raised her eyebrows at her. "Not to say I don't approve of working hard, but perhaps you should consider cutting back on your training if it causes such panic?"

"Really? I thought you were all for causing unrest." Tony grinned at her.

"Only when it's planned and controlled. Panicked fury has its time and place; thrown in my face for the crime of actually pretending to care is not it."

"I'd like to point out I didn't actually do anything," Tommy protested. "Well, nothing irreversible, anyway, like blowing up your head."

"Good thing you didn't. I'm pretty sure she could have finished you even without her head."

"Tony." Steve sighed, then looked at Billy. "Billy? Are you feeling better?"

"Um. Yeah." He brought his hand to touch Teddy's scaly arm in what he hoped was a soothing manner. "Though I'm afraid we'll have to cut our movie night short."

"Yeah, I think the atmosphere's been ruined now, anyway." Teddy smiled down at him, though the worry was still clear in his eyes. "How about I take you to bed and you can sleep off that exhaustion?"

"My hero." Billy smiled back. "Will you carry me there, too?"

"Like I'd let you walk on your own after that. Making popcorn shouldn't be a hazardous activity." Teddy then turned to look at the adults. "Now that we've cleared that up, can we go?"

Tony waved his hand dismissively. "Go, go. Get some sleep. And before you ask, Legolas, scary lady, you've got rooms to retire to as well. They were temporarily used by the kids before I got them their own floor, but I assure you they've been thoroughly cleaned of any form of cooties."

"Eh, pretty sure we've slept in worse, no matter what." Hawkeye waved his hand. "You. Kate, right? I was promised a range by the great and mighty Stark, so I'm hoping there actually is one in this monster of a house. You can show me there tomorrow, right?"

Kate said something, probably agreeing, and then Tommy cut in and Steve added something, but Billy wasn't listening anymore. He focused on the warmth of Teddy's chest as he was gathered close, the gentle movement of getting carried out of the room and down the corridor.

He was fast asleep before they reached the elevator.

*

"So." The moment the last of the children were out of sight, Hawkeye's expression turned perfectly serious without a hint of joking. "What's your angle here, Stark?"

"Angle?" Tony raised his eyebrows, throwing an arm along the back of the couch. This brought it rather close to Steve's shoulders, close enough that he could swear he could feel the heat radiating from it. It was… not unpleasant. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Don't try to play stupid. You don't do things without reasons." Natasha was equally grave, circling around the couch to seat herself on the one opposite, now vacated by any sleepy teenagers.

"Not without reasons, no. However, I'm sure you have noticed by now that my reasons are sometimes rather whimsical."

"Yeah, well, you're also pretty big on your personal space. And now you're suddenly inviting over not just a bunch of heroic types, but random teenagers who just popped up one day." Clint crossed his arms over his chest, eyeing them both, now. "And moreover, Cap allows you to do that."

"Hey, first of all, this place is mine. Like, eighty-eight percent mine, anyway. What I do or don't do with my private property is none of Cap's concern, nor of SHIELD's, and I'll thank you to remember that." Tony's fingertips tapped against his arc reactor through his shirt, a nervous rhythm that Steve nevertheless found oddly soothing. "It's not like I'm hosting an anti-governmental terrorist cell out of my storage closet, no matter what certain news sources may claim."

"Tony's right." Steve figured it was about time he took part in the discussion as well. "He's not doing anything that should concern SHIELD."

"Oi, nobody claimed he is." Clint lifted his hands now in a defensive gesture. "I'm not here because Ol' Fury wants eyes and ears inside the Tower, I'm here because SHIELD's cafeteria food sucks and I want an actual room and not a hole in the wall. That doesn't mean I can't be curious about this new trend."

"Well, I had a number of unused floors here on the Tower anyway, and when I realized most of you were either essentially homeless or living off SHIELD, I thought I'd offer them up for use. I mean, if fighting aliens doesn't give you a sense of camaraderie, what does?" Tony's tapping was getting faster now, just a bit, but enough for Steve's ears to pick up on. "And then I got a surprise delivery of kids with nowhere to go for the time being. To top it all off, their abilities and background are enough for the government goons to consider them a threat. So, because at some point I was apparently injected with illegal drugs that grow consciences where they're not wanted, I decided I'd let them stay instead of dumbing them out through the closest window. Which is a good thing, because the one I've been told can reliably fly is apparently also prone to roaring rampages of revenge when his boyfriend is threatened, and while I've got nothing but admiration for big green balls of rage, I'd rather keep them aimed away from my face." Tony paused. "I will now receive your appreciation and admiration for managing to keep from making any inopportune jokes about balls near my face."

"Don't worry, I made them all inside my head." Clint smirked. "So, what? You're keeping the junior heroes here for how long?"

"Until we can figure out where they came from and how they get back there? Or they get bored or try to murder us in our sleep. It's not like I can't afford to feed them or anything."

"And if they do try to murder you in your sleep?" Of course it was Natasha, without a hint of a joke in her voice.

"In that case, they're pretty damn bad at it, given the ample opportunities they've been presented with. I mean, if Cap Goody here can sneak in and put a blanket over me when I've fallen asleep at the work table, I'm pretty sure they'd manage to stab me before JARVIS or the bots could do anything. And don't you look so abashed, Steve, I've known since the first time Pepper went off on a trip, it had to be either you or Bruce doing it and he can't lie to me."

"I was only fulfilling a lady's request." Which was perfectly fine and understandable and there was nothing bad about doing so even if said lady was seeing another man. "She was worried you wouldn't get proper rest without her forcing you to."

"I'm not sure if I should be touched or insulted that my girlfriend doesn't think I can handle actual sleep without someone reminding me." Tony looked from Clint to Natasha. "I suppose I don't have to tell you that a condition of you staying here is keeping this hush-hush."

"Hey, long as they don't cause problems, I'm fine with it. Funny thing about head-invading aliens is, they make you really have a new-found respect for people's privacy. If the matter doesn't threaten humanity or violate any of my direct orders, I'll just go ahead and challenge it to a shooting contest. I've got to see how that bow of her serves in a proper bout."

"Thank you, Clint." Steve figured it was best to speak as though Tony's declaration was from both of them; it would lend more authority on the stance, and he really did not want the kids trapped in a SHIELD cell or thrown out. He knew far too well what it was like to be far away from everything you truly knew. "Natasha?"

"Just because I am occasionally a spy doesn't mean Nick Fury knows everything I know." There was the faintest hint of a smile on her lips, and somehow, she managed to make it one of the most terrifying things Steve had ever seen. "I can deal with living with adolescents and not including it in any official reports as long as there are no panty raids."

"Yeah, I think you're pretty safe from those. Two of the kids are sappier than an entire amber necklace and the third boy is equally smitten, not that he'd ever admit it."

"I was referring to you, Stark." She stood up in one smooth motion. "JARVIS? Could you show me to my room?"

"Certainly, Agent Romanoff."

"Thank you, JARVIS." She inclined her head at them. "I'll see about staying or not doing so later, but for now, I promise not to tell Fury about your unlicensed day care business unless there is a pressing need to do so."

"I suppose that's the best I can get. I mean, it's not like I can get a signed promise, you'd just use a fake name." And yet, Tony didn't actually sound hostile.

"Please. As though I have a name that hasn't been fake at one point or the other." And with this, Natasha left the room in the direction of JARVIS's thoughtfully lit lamps.

"Well. That's my cue to get some sleep as well, I guess." Clint jumped off his perch, landing softly on the floor. "I'll just let you two get back to whatever it is you were doing before we arrived and caused a commotion."

Steve blinked. "It was half past midnight. What would we have been doing but sleeping? Well, and building, in Tony's case." Somehow, he got the feeling he was being made fun of.

"I'll tell you when you're older." Clint smirked. "I've got to say, Stark, I'm impressed. I'd have expected you to start flirting with Nat roughly three nanoseconds after seeing her, now that we're not in a life-threatening situation."

"No, see, I wouldn't do that." Tony waved his hand. "I'm not quite ready to die an unpleasant death, yet."

"Please. If she was inclined to kill you for something like that, she would have done so while you still thought she was called Natalie."

"Oh, no, I'm not afraid of her. Well, I am, I do have some miserable shreds of a self-preservation instinct left in me, but that's not what I meant. It's just that if I tried to actually hit on another woman in a way that wasn't a joke, Pepper would leave me, and then I would die a horrible, horrible death of heartbreak. And yes, that's absolutely fatal. I've got a heart condition, remember."

"And then you call the kids sappy." Clint whistled as though impressed. "Who'd have known. Playboy Stark finally settling down."

"I'd say something about the old ball and chain, but then your next spying spy espionage report would get new shades guaranteed to give Nick an aneurysm." Tony tilted his head as though deep in thought. "Wait a minute, why am I against this? Shit, I really should dig up those links I saved to smutty fanfiction about me and the whole team. You can present those to Nick as factual logs, I bet we'd see his head explode all the way from here."

"And I think this is the point when all of us should get some more sleep." Steve stood up at last, immediately missing the warmth of Tony's arm at his shoulders. "You, too, Tony. Pepper's only away for the night, you don't want to be falling asleep on your feet when she gets back tomorrow evening."

"Funny. I could have sworn I invited you here because you were an American icon rapidly turning into a drifter, not because I needed free relationship counseling."

"Have you seen how much I eat? This is hardly free." Steve's lips twitched as he saw Tony stifling a yawn. "Come on. I can even carry you to bed if you wish."

"Tempting, but I think I'll make my own way soon enough. Don't want Clint to get any more ideas than he already does." Tony grinned. "Good night, Captain."

"Good night, Tony."

It was probably for the best it didn't dawn on him what Clint and Tony had been hinting at until he was well on his way towards his own room.

Especially since the flush on his face was not entirely out of embarrassment.


	9. Hawkeyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two Hawkeyes are getting to know each other. Tommy is not jealous. Of course he's not, that'd be absolutely ridiculous. He just doesn't think Kate should be spending so much time with some ancient creep who probably doesn't even shoot all that well. Also, Tony finds out something rather surprising about Clint and someone else of his acquaintance.

This wasn't her Clint.

Of course, it had been clear enough even before the man had arrived; they wouldn't see the actual people they knew, mere facsimiles with almost the same faces, because this wasn't their world and these weren't their people. Even then, however weird it was to deal with another Cap and Tony and Bruce, all of that hadn't quite sunk in until she first got to speak with this new Clint. He didn't have any memory of her, hadn't lived through the same things the man she knew had, didn't get all the in-jokes and offhand mentions she and her Clint had formed over the years.

He was, however, still Hawkeye. In a strange way, that made things easier. There were already two Hawkeyes; she could accept a third one. Especially since this Hawkeye indeed headed to the range with her soon as they got the chance.

Even as they were shooting, he wasn't quiet. That was good, really; if he had not chatted at least a bit, she would have become convinced there indeed were Skrulls in this reality as well, since she couldn't imagine any incarnation of Clint Barton who could stay silent for long outside of a sensitive op, if even then. However, somewhat to her surprise, he didn't ask her about the differences between their worlds, the other Avengers, not even his counterpart. All he seemed interested in was Kate herself, and even then he avoided direct questions, simply steering the conversation this way or that.

It was surprisingly easy, falling into the familiar rhythm of sharp quips, light teasing, and challenges. He was better than her, but she supposed she could live with that; however good her marksmanship, there was no shame in losing to another Hawkeye. Besides, she did win some of their challenges, enough so to make him seem impressed.

"Okay, I can definitely see why you'd take on the name of Hawkeye." He certainly sounded approving.

"I didn't take it on myself." She shrugged, testing his bow in her hands. It was a beautiful thing, but she rather preferred hers. "Cap gave it to me, along with your bow."

"Oh?" Clint raised his eyebrows. Well, apparently he still had some interest in those matters. "Not that I can't see you earning those, but wouldn't I need them myself?"

"Yes, well, you were kind of dead for a while." Which was going to be so very easy to explain. "And then you came back under another name, so there was no Hawkeye for a bit. You did take your bow back but then Tommy and I stole it back, and when you decided to be Hawkeye again we figured there can't be too many."

Clint whistled. "I can get behind that logic. Twice the awesome, twice the fun." He tested her bow. "So this used to belong to the other me, huh?"

"Yeah. Feel familiar?"

"Mm, kind of. Don't think I've had this exact one, but it's certainly got a familiar feel." Clint nocked an arrow, drew the string back and loosed the arrow almost carelessly, sending it sailing directly to the bullseye. "Not bad."

"Of course it's not bad. You think I'd accept anything less than the best, regardless of past owners?" Kate lifted her eyebrows. "I'm offended."

"As you well should be." He gave her a grin, now. "I like you. Never too many Hawkeyes around."

"Don't say that too loud," she chuckled. "Tommy might hear and get jealous."

"What, your boyfriend?" Which, okay, was probably close enough to the truth that she could let it slide. "He the jealous type?"

"Badly enough for someone who won't even admit we're dating half the time." At his questioning glance, she rolled her eyes. "See, dating would imply that he actually has some sort of feelings towards me."

"Ah, I see. That kind of a guy." Clint's grin only got wider. "Should I offer my condolences?"

"I've dealt with him long enough by now. Besides, it runs in the family, along with the hair. The good thing is, the inability to admit to having emotions seems to go hand in hand with extreme protectiveness."

"So I don't need to have a serious talk with him? You know, just because you're another Hawkeye, not because you can't handle him."

"Please don't. He'd just take that as a sign that you're invested in my happiness, which would be very suspicious."

Clint shook his head. "Sounds like quite the problem. And you put up with that?"

"He has his good points." She shrugged. "Witty, smart when he wants to be, loyal to a fault, more heroic than he realizes." Kate paused, allowing herself a smirk. "Also, his refractory period is pretty much negligible."

Clint blinked, then laughed. "Fair enough. Far it be from me to judge the choices of someone who has such fine taste in bows."

"Good to know you approve." She smirked. "So. Best out of ten, using each other's bows?"

"You're on."

No, this was not her Clint, and regardless of the similarities, would never be.

She was sure she could grow to like this Hawkeye, though.

*

"Well, that was fun, I've got to admit." Tony wiped some sweat off his forehead.

"Glad to hear I didn't let you down." Kate was fixing her ponytail, a trickle of sweat falling down the side of her face as well. "I really don't have that many people to practice with around here. Tommy doesn't have the patience and Teddy is afraid of hurting me even in his human form."

"Makes sense, I guess. Steve's really apprehensive about sparring with me, too." Tony headed over to his water bottle. "And Billy?"

"I've managed to get him to agree a couple of times. However, he's pretty inexperienced, so it's not quite as much fun. He's used to just blasting people away or putting up shields, not going hand to hand with anyone."

"Right." Tony's lips twitched. "I use the suit for actual battles, too, but there are times when I don't have it at hand. So, I decided to stop being an easy target."

"I came more or less to the same conclusion." Her expression darkened for a moment, but Tony decided not to push it. That would probably not lead to anything good. "So, while I may be the only one in my little crew not to have superhuman abilities, I'm definitely the one with the best battle training."

"So I'm starting to see." Tony chuckled. "You should probably ask Widow to teach you a few things. I could see her liking the idea of creating another unstoppable killer lady."

"You should tell her that you think we should get along simply because we're both women. See how well that goes over." Kate's lips twitched. "Not that I have anything in particular against her, but I already booked Clint to train me."

"Oh, right, our other scary assassin is a fan." Tony paused. "Wait. If he agreed to help you train, why exactly are you here tumbling around with little old me?"

"Tommy." Which was… not a full answer, unless there had been some leaps and bounds in the English language recently that Tony had entirely missed. "He's… jealous."

"Jealous?" Tony couldn't help a grin spreading on his face. "Mister No Feelings actually admits to feeling jealousy?" Hell yes he could feel schadenfreude over that. He'd already had to get over the stage of admitting that, yes, he cared about people on occasion, especially brilliant, efficient, gorgeous people called Pepper. It wasn't his fault the kid was being slow on the uptake.

"Oh, he won't admit to anything, but he's being all sulky and glaring at Clint whenever I'm talking with him." Kate rolled her eyes. "It'd be adorable if it wasn't getting to be annoying. He can barely admit to dating me, he sure as hell doesn't get to act like he owns me."

"Well, I don't know. Does he actually have anything to fear from Hawkass?"

"What? Don't be absurd." Kate stared at him with a look of incredulity on her face. "I'd as soon sleep with my sister as Clint, and I'm not even particularly into women." Her eyes narrowed as she added, "And no, you're not allowed to picture that. I'm telling Pepper if you get a distant look in your eyes."

"Yes, Ma'am. No imaginings happening here." Tony paused. "So, uh… have you ever mentioned to Tommy that your feelings towards this not bad-looking, decidedly heroic, talented archer with rather impressive arm muscles are of a sisterly nature at best?"

"He should damn well know that by now." Kate paused. "Though then, he knows that about our Clint… who I've known for quite a while longer, and who is older than this one. And has been married before."

"Right. So maybe it's not entirely unreasonable that he might need some reassurance that you're not going to leave him for this younger, improved version of your surrogate big brother."

"Mmm, I'll think about it. Maybe when he stops sulking."

"Please do. I don't have any more teen drama around here, and yes, I'm aware you're not a teenager anymore, but then he seems to be the one producing the drama." Tony shrugged. "So. You can do archery and hand-to-hand. Anything else you're hiding?"

Kate shrugged. "I'm also reasonably good with a sword and battle staves."

Tony couldn't help but whistle at that. It wasn't bad to appreciate a woman for her skills, right? "You really have multiple talents, don't you?"

"As I said, I decided not to be an easy victim anymore." And that wasn't in any way creepy or making him suspect horrific things or anything. "For what it's worth, I also play the cello."

"The cello?" Tony raised his eyebrows. Something about that nagged at his memory, but he'd be damned if he could place it. "That seems… random."

"Why? I'd say it fits right in my theme." Kate's lips twitched. "After all, regardless of my other skills, my expertise is obviously with the bow."

Tony was about to answer, but his brain suddenly came to a halt. Whatever he had been about to say fled his mind as a new, almost terrifying track of thought presented itself.

Bow. Cello. Cellists used bows.

"Tony?" Kate frowned, doubtlessly because he had just more or less frozen in place. "Something wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." Everything. "Just… I suddenly thought of something I need to check. Like, right away." He gathered the rest of his items next to the training mats, mentally going through the list of places his target could potentially be spending her time in. "Good fight, let's definitely do this again some time. Maybe when your boyfriend isn't concerned about you getting hot and sweaty with older men again."

"Right." Kate gave him a suspicious look. "Don't blow up anything."

"Owning the place means never having to agree to such ludicrous demands." With that, he rushed out of the door. He really, really needed to find Natasha right now.

Thankfully she wasn't as hard to locate as he had feared. JARVIS quickly led him to one of the balconies, where she was leaning against a railing, looking down into the streets.

"For the record," Tony said as he stepped out, "while I admit my heroic dive out of the way of a mad evil god was pretty damn impressive, I really wouldn't recommend it without proper equipment."

"Please. The day I follow your example in anything is the day I might just as well die." Natasha turned around, raising an eyebrow at him. "Any particular reason you're here?"

"Aside from the fact that the view is indeed magnificent? I need to ask you something."

"No, I don't know what Pepper wants for Christmas. You want to make sure you don't mess up, ask him yourself."

"What? No! No, this isn't anything like that." Even though he had to admit he had no idea what to get her, but hey, it was barely autumn yet. He had time. And JARVIS. JARVIS was very good at figuring such things out. "No, this is about Clint."

"I'm actually not his minder, you know. If you want to find him, ask your AI."

"I don't need to find Legolas." She was being difficult on purpose, had to be. "I just need to know something about him."

"Oh?" She raised another eyebrow, now. "And it's something you can't hack out from his files or ask him yourself?"

"Kind of." Tony sighed. This was really not going to be easy. "You must know this, if anyone. Believe me, I wouldn't ask you otherwise." At her questioning gaze, he drew a deep breath. "Tell me… what was Coulson for him?"

"Hm?" Her eyebrows hiked even higher. "He was our handler, both mine and Clint's. What of it?"

"You know damn well that's not what I mean." He had been so stupid, so very stupid. "Coulson… he told Pepper he had a girlfriend."

"And?" Her lips twitched. "I'm not sure if you noticed, but Clint's actually not a girl."

"Yeah, no, that's not it. It's just… I don't think Coulson was telling strictly the truth." He met her eyes head on, and damn, he definitely deserved a medal of some kind for that. "He said he was dating a cellist."

"I presume there's supposed to be some significance to this." And yet, he could already see it dawning on her.

"I'd damn well hope." Tony shook his head. "I can't believe I didn't put it together before, but… I just had a talk with Kate. She mentioned her own hobby." He drew another breath. "Cellists use bows."

"Yes, they do." And yet her expression didn't waver at all.

"So, is that it?" He stepped forward, wanting, needing an answer. "Is Hawkass that cellist?"

There was a hint of something in Natasha's eyes, he was sure, even if he couldn't entirely decipher it. "Does that matter?"

"Of course it matters! There's a damn big difference between losing your handler and your lover! Jesus, I knew you had a heart of ice, but surely this isn't a concept that's too hard for you to grasp?"

"Oh, I'm well aware of the difference." Her lips were set in a thin line, now. "I don't know if you realize, but I'm the one who has been dealing with Clint ever since that mess. Which, if you might remember, also involved him getting his brain hijacked and being forced to kill our people. Getting away from SHIELD may not have been our sole reason for arriving here, but we damn well didn't come simply to see your pretty face, either."

"And how does that change anything I just said?"

"It doesn't change anything. However, the point is, Clint's just starting to recover." Natasha's eyes went icy. Well, icier. "And if you insist on dragging out all the things that hurt him just to satisfy your curiosity, I can and will take him away from here."

"So that's your solution, then?" Tony's tone was quiet, but he was sure she could hear him. "Just pretend that what he was to Clint doesn't matter either way?"

"Oh, no." She finally pushed herself away from the railing, walking past Tony. "It is to accept that whatever Coulson's role might have been in Clint's heart, losing him was one of the biggest blows in his already miserable life, and dwelling on the matter when he isn't willing to talk will accomplish nothing of significance beyond hurting him."

Her footsteps had faded away before Tony could think of any kind of a response.

Well. This wasn't fucked up at all.

*

The problem with jealousy, Tommy had come to realize, was that it was not exactly rational.

Of course, many people would not have accused him of ever having been rational to begin with. He couldn't actually fault them for that assumption; he had never truly tried to prove people wrong if they decided he was just a braggart who acted before speaking. Things were easier that way. Much though he hated having his enemies underestimate him, few things made it easier to avoid people bugging him than making it seem like he was hardly worth engaging in the first place. He even got away with more things like this; somehow people seemed to find it easier to forgive someone for acting before thinking than for going against orders after deliberation. The problem with such assumptions was, as some people had come to notice to their misfortune, that it was very much erroneous.

No, he wasn't a genius of some kind, didn't have the mutant ability of super intelligence or perfect reasoning, wasn't even truly booksmart even though he made a point of learning anything people thought he was too stupid to grasp. He did, however, have a considerable advantage over almost anyone else in the known world: he was the master of very, very quick thinking.

It probably didn't make people stupid for missing that basic fact, not that it stopped him from thinking somewhat less of anyone who couldn't realize it on their own. Most people just didn't even consider it a possibility. Brains worked the same way for everyone, after all, and whereas some people might have had an easier time with making connections and drawing the correct conclusions, a quick mind was still mostly a metaphor, or in contrast to someone who was somewhat slow in their thoughts. Given all this, it was probably very easy for people to forget that everything about him worked in perfect synch.

You didn't have to be a genius when you could consider five different possibilities in the time it took everyone else to analyze one.

Right now, however, thinking fast turned out to be anything but an advantage. When his problem was imagining bad possibilities, coming up with several at once was nothing but a hindrance. Every option, every worst case scenario was running through his mind at once, all the ways everything could go wrong, all the ways he could lose one of the most important things in his life. In such a situation, trying to think rationally through it all was not even on the table.

Of course, even harboring such fears did not yet truly cross into the realm of the irrational until he marched into the gym, lifting his head, and called out. "Yo, Hawkass! Get down here!"

There was no response. Bristling, Tommy turned his burning eyes towards the small shelf up close to the ceiling that was theoretically supposed to hold some kind of equipment but in practice was too high for any regular use. Of course, he wouldn't put it past Tony to have put it in just for its current use, especially considering it didn't seem to have any trouble with bearing the weight of a grown man.

"I can see you there, you know," he announced. "Not exactly the most subtle hiding place."

"Only if I intend to hide, though." Clint lifted his head from where he had been lying down, relaxed as though he wasn't some twelve feet off the ground at the very least. "If I just want somewhere to take a nap, this usually serves well unless someone comes by to yell."

"Well, aren't you hilarious." Tommy frowned.

"And I see I've already won an enemy. Which isn't the first time by far, but usually I actually do something to earn them. Or is it my face? Does it offend you somehow? Usually I'd welcome you to try to rearrange it if you want, but I heard about your little explosion and I've grown somewhat attached to my skull."

"As though you don't know." He had to admit his voice was little more than a growl, but to hell with it. He had every cause to be angry. "You're trying to steal Kate away!"

"What?" There was such incredulity in Clint's voice it took all of Tommy's willpower not to simply run up the wall and punch him in the stupid face. "Sorry, I think I heard you wrong. I could've sworn you just accused me of trying to take Kate from you."

"Don't play stupid with me." Because while people underestimating his intelligence were just setting themselves up for a fall, those mocking him were high on his list of people not to deal with, unless they were very closely related to him. "You're spending hours with her every day. It's not like I can't see where you're going with that."

"Unless your guess would be the archery range, sorry, you'd be wrong. Though I suppose we do sometimes walk around, too, and talk. We talk a lot. Is that somehow indecent in your world? Because if so, wow, your life must be one constant orgy."

Tommy gritted his teeth. "I'm neither blind nor stupid." Whatever he might have been accused of in the past. "You like her, but she's not yours to have. Now come down here so I can punch you, just to make my point perfectly clear."

"Okay." Clint sighed, looking down from his perch. "I don't usually cater to children like this, but it seems right now it's either this or a fight, and frankly I think Kate wouldn't hesitate to skin us both alive." He took a hold of the edge of the shelf, swinging down to hang from the edge before he hopped down with far too light feet for Tommy's liking; it would have been much more satisfying for him to come down with a thud. Possibly break something.

"I'm not a fucking child," Tommy hissed. "And I'm definitely closer to her age than you are."

"Which is all the better, given that you're the one with interest in her."

"Oh, don't try to pretend. I'm not an actual idiot, you know." Tommy crossed his arms over his chest. "Since you arrived you've spent far too much time with her for just some healthy curiosity."

"Well, yeah, obviously. I'm pretty curious to see what kind of a woman would have earned the name of Hawkeye in some other world." Clint shrugged, an effortless shrug of his shoulders. "Some of us can actually spend time with people we're not either related to or lusting after, you know."

"Bullshit. Yeah, yeah, friends and whatever, but you've barely met her! And of course you'd be interested in her. She's a great archer, and smart and strong and hot. I'm not saying I blame you, I'm just telling you to back off."

"And I'm telling you, there's nothing for me to back off on." Clint mirrored his position, now, and though Tommy would have never admitted it aloud, his arms were rather impressive. "I'm not interested in her in a romantic manner, or a sexual manner, either, if that's what you're worried about. In fact, I can pretty much give you my word I never will be. My interest is simply in another archer, given how rare it's to see anyone who prefers my weapon of choice, nowadays."

"And why wouldn't you?" For some reason, that made Tommy fume even more. No, it might not have been the most logical feeling, but he couldn't exactly help it, either. "Something wrong with her, huh? Not good enough for the noble archer?"

"Oh, please. Do I really have to spell it out for you?" Clint sighed, lifting a hand to rub his forehead, a look of exasperation on his face that Tommy did not appreciate. "What, are you hounding your brother every time he spends time with her, too? Or is that okay because he's not a dirty old man?"

"No." This was absolutely ridiculous. "That's okay because he's gay and engaged besides."

"Right." His arms still across his chest, Clint lifted a single eyebrow. "And if I told you I am, too?"

Tommy blinked. "Wait, what are you? Gay or engaged?"

"Yes." There was a troubled look on Clint's face, gone before it even properly registered, but if there was one thing Tommy lacked, speedy observational skills were not it.

"Yes? To both?"

"More or less, yes." And here was another sigh, though less exasperated, now. "Is that enough proof for you of my pure intentions, or will we have to duel for the fair maiden's hand before she decides to kick both of our asses for treating her like some kind of a trophy?"

"Wait. Wait wait wait. You can't be both." Tommy pointed a finger at him. "You can't be engaged, or you wouldn't be happy to move here all on your own. Hell, JARVIS won't even let most visitors up here! The only explanation would be if it was someone already in the Tower, and I doubt you're dating either Cap or Banner, and the only other single person left is Widow and no man falling for her would ever be gay."

"Setting aside the still rather real possibility of simply not having had time to drag a significant other over in the, oh, full week we've been here, there's a very simple explanation for that." Now, an edge of pain crept into his voice, though he seemed to be doing his best to cover it up. "I call myself engaged only because 'widower except I didn't get the chance to marry' sounds pretty damn complicated."

"Oh." And at that, his brain screeched to a rare sort of a halt. "You…"

"Yeah. So, don't worry. I'm not going to steal your Hawkeye away, however great she may be. You'd be more likely to catch my interest, except mouthy brats are not exactly my type." Despite the sharp words, there was a hint of softness to his eyes. "Does that clear the matters enough for you?"

"I suppose." He paused. "So you're really, really not going to steal her?" Which, yeah, was stupid repetition at this point, but he wanted to make sure.

"Swear it on my bow." Clint's lips twitched a bit. "That good enough for you?"

"Suppose it's the best I'm going to get." And, well, he was dating an archer.

"Right." The man stretched. "So, can I get back to my nap now?"

There were still a thousand things flying through Tommy's mind as he ran off, but at least they weren't quite as terrible anymore.


	10. Tinkering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony has an interesting proposal for Tommy. Tommy, of course, gets a bit more of a benefit from it than initially planned -- and also new ideas for keeping his idiot of a little brother safe.

The strange thing was, even with practically limitless entertainment at his fingertips, courtesy of Tony Stark's entertainment system, Tommy managed to get bored.

In his defense, it couldn't be his fault, certainly not entirely. For one thing, he had no company at the moment. Kate had disappeared to the shooting range with her beloved idol, and while Tommy was happy that she was happy and getting over the worst of his jealousy besides, he was feeling a bit dejected. Teddy and Billy had of course invited him to join them in catching up on this world's selection of comic book super heroes, but he didn't have to be a genius to realize he'd have soon been a third wheel on a very geeky semi-date. The adults were all busy with something, not that he needed babysitting, so he was left with nothing but his own lovely company and Tony's collection of entertainment technology.

Now, however, he was staring at a screen the size of half the wall and sighing in boredom. More channels than he cared to contemplate, all the latest games and technology, and yet he found himself watching cat videos on the internet. Bad cat videos. Ones he'd already seen, too.

All things considered, it was probably forgivable that when someone rushed into the living room with the faint smell of smoke, he felt relieved. At least something might happen now, good or bad.

"Hey, you." Tony had a somewhat crazed look, though Tommy had already come to realize that didn't mean anything was necessarily out of the ordinary, not when he had obviously just rushed out of his lab, judging by his slightly ragged clothes. "You're fast, right?"

"Uh, that's kind of my thing, yeah." Tommy raised his eyebrows. "What of it?"

"Great. Are you any good with your hands?"

Now there was something he didn't hear every day. "That depends. Are these the kind of questions I shouldn't be answering without a lawyer around? Because this has the potential to turn very creepy very fast."

"Har har. Look, I'm the king of snarky comments, don't try to match wits with me. Just come with me, okay?"

Tommy still wasn't convinced there was any need for him to, but he was bored, after all. Whatever it was the mad scientist had in mind, it had to beat watching a cat batting at a keyboard. Still, he made a point of not moving one bit faster than Tony's frantic strides. He didn't want to seem too eager, after all.

The workshop doors opened without any command as they approached, allowing Tony to march in like a king entering his rightful realm. A couple of large robot things whirred in the background, but he ignored them, rushing over to one of the workbenches. Following him, Tommy found a tiny device sitting on the surface, surrounded by heaps of small metal parts.

"This," Tony announced, "is our new communications device. Small, lightweight, excellent battery life, astounding range. It's truly the best in its field, which is why Fury wants one for everyone on the team, plus as many for the field agents as I can put together."

"Right." Tommy leaned against the workbench. "And where do I come in?"

"These are very delicate devices. Not something I can trust to my bots; they have to be put together precisely right or it could lead to a catastrophe." Tommy rather doubted it was that serious, but whatever, he'd humor the guy. "However, I have a dozen other things on my plate. I don't have the time to sit here and put together toys for every one of Fury's little minions."

"Let me guess. You thought I'd get it done faster?" Okay, so that made sense. In some way.

"Well, couldn't you?" There was a hint of challenge to the question. Oh, this guy was good.

"Depends." Tommy glanced at the selection of parts. It seemed pretty complicated. "What's in it for me?"

"Oh, so me putting up with you kids and providing you with everything you could possibly need isn't enough?" Tony paused. "Of course not. You're a good young capitalist, my friend. Good thing I've got just the thing in mind."

"And what would that be?"

"I've been working on some new versions of weapons for my suit. The good news is, it involves a lot of things that go boom. The bad news is, Pepper dislikes explosions anywhere near the living quarters. As such, I'm going to construct a new lab capable of withstanding minor explosions without any risk or harm to the basic structure of the building. You help me with this, I'll make sure you get an access code."

"An explosions lab?" Well, that actually didn't sound bad. "And I get free access?"

"Far as I care, yes, unless I'm currently blowing something up in there, in which case you'll just have to watch. If you're a good boy, I might even let you play with some explosives in addition to your own kinetic stuff, provided that it's reasonably supervised and neither Cap nor Pepper ever, ever catches wind of it."

"And you're sure you want to make such an offer to someone like me?" Because that part was obviously the weak link in an otherwise brilliant plan.

"Why not? As long as you don't specifically try to blow up the walls, there shouldn't be any damage. You get to let out some steam, I get help with these damn things. Sounds like a win-win to me."

"Whatever." It would be good, being able to actually do something for a change. "I'm going to need some instructions, though. I don't know if geniuses are all capable of knowing how something is put together just by looking at it, but I'm not exactly an engineer."

"Sure, sure." Tony waved his hand, and a blueprint appeared in the air in front of his eyes. "Just make sure you put everything together the way it's supposed to go."

"Hey, I'm a child of the video game generation, remember. My hand-eye coordination is superb." The diagram was complicated, but not too much so. It would take him no time at all to put one together. Sure, a large number would be more challenging, but it wasn't like he'd been doing anything else.

"Yeah, I've noticed. Making full use of your little break from school, huh?"

Tommy waited until he'd put together the first device, knowing full well it would have been entirely useless to try to talk while he was sped up. "Not like it's anything new," he replied then, setting the finished one aside. "Haven't been to school in a while. Not since I blew up my last one."

"Oh?" Tony's eyebrows shot high even as he moved to another work bench. "Should I be worried or congratulate you?"

"Whatever you want." He shrugged. "Billy's parents have been nagging me to get back to it, but lately they've been more concerned with getting Billy back to gear. Guess they'll start pushing me again now that he's mostly out of his slump."

"Right." There was a pause, which Tommy took as a sign he could get started on the next one. As a result, Tony's words came in slowed down to an annoying extent as he spoke next. "So, you live with them?"

"Yeah. Terrible people, terribly nice, that is." Tommy rolled his eyes. "Oh, your boyfriend's mom got killed by an alien? Sure, he can move in, just remember you're still not sleeping in the same room! What's this, you broke your surprise twin brother out of a human weapon testing facility and now he's homeless? Why not, we've got room for him, too! We'll even be extra nice to him to make up for the shitty parents he had before, even though that'll just highlight the fact that he got the shitty short straw and you were the lucky favorite."

"Yeah, I can see how that'd get annoying after a while." Tony nodded sagely even as his hands danced over another set of blueprints, modifying this and adding that on the fly. "So, you're avoiding school just to spite them?"

"Well, no. Just don't see the point in going back." Okay, time to get back to work.

"I suppose I can sympathize." What, the geek extraordinaire? "I didn't care much for school, either. Too slow for my tastes, and I'd imagine it's even worse for you."

Tommy snorted as he finished another little device. "My brain works at the same speed as the rest of me. Kinda has to, or I'd be running into walls more than up them," he pointed out. "Why would I spend my entire day sitting around with a bunch of idiots when I could get the same amount of studying done in an hour?"

"So study at home. It can be done."

"Or maybe I'm just not fucking interested."

"That's a pity. A super fast brain could do miracles in some fields with the right basic education."

Tommy snorted. "Like anyone'd want someone like me doing any thinking."

"So you're not even going to try proving them wrong?"

"Is this some nefarious plan of yours?" Because it damn well was starting to sound like one. "Get me back on the straight and narrow? Because believe me, better people than you have tried."

"I just hate to see potential wasted." Tony shrugged. "But, hey, your life, your choices. You aspire to be the world's fastest burger flipper, fine by me."

"You're a born comedian, Stark. Now can I get back to your work?"

"Hey, don't mind me. I'll just be over here doing my own thing."

Thankfully, any further chatter was soon replaced by loud music, letting Tommy shut out anything but the work in front of him. Gather the parts, assemble, repeat. It was easy enough, and after a couple more he managed to pick up the speed. Tony's music was a slow roar in the background, drowning out any unnecessary thoughts, until at some point he reached for more parts and realized he had run out.

Blinking, Tommy let himself slow down again, looking around in the workshop. Tony had vanished, though the open blueprints above his work station seemed to indicate it was only temporary. "JARVIS?"

"Master Thomas." The music faded to make way for the calm British voice. "Sir is currently discussing his plans with Captain Rogers. Furthermore, Masters Teddy and William volunteered to handle dinner tonight and were wondering if you would like to assist them in preparing burritos for everyone."

Tommy sighed. "Well, I probably have to, or they'll never get enough done. The idiots didn't even think of how much food this household consumes at one sitting?" Which, yeah, was partly his fault, but then he hadn't chosen his metabolism any more than Cap had chosen his. They couldn't really be blamed for it.

He glanced at the heap of comm links he had finished assembling. It'd better be enough for Stark for a good, long while; he'd made so many of them, he'd had the blueprints memorized long ago.

He might just as well pocket a few of the devices. They might come in handy later. Like, say, if Billy ever decided they should get back to hero business again.

For now, though, their adventures together were going to involve the arduous task of folding tortillas.

Tommy supposed it was still better than staring at the TV screen all alone.

*

Draw, aim, loose.

Kate let herself fall into the familiar rhythm of her bow, her eyes on the target, hands feeling the grip and the bowstring and the arrows with such awareness she could have done this in her sleep. Nothing else mattered, nothing else existed besides the target at the end of the range.

She loosed another arrow, watching it fly to its intended destination, and paused before drawing again. There were footsteps approaching, heavy in a manner that spoke of deliberation rather than the weight of the walker. She paused, bow only half raised. "Something the matter?"

"What, I can't come see my favorite archer without a reason?" Now that he knew he had been noticed, Tommy skipped the rest of the way, appearing by her side in a flash. He at least knew better than to sneak up on her, most of the time. "That's harsh, Katie. And here I thought there was something special between us."

"It's special enough that I haven't killed you yet for calling me that." She took aim again, determined not to let him deter her from her practice. "Was there something you wanted? Because you know I'm not going to skip the rest of my practice just because you're bored."

"Nah, just wanted to talk to you. I've been bored out of my mind. Would have come by earlier but I didn't want to ruin your quality time with Hawkeye Senior." Tommy grinned.

"Should I apologize for not being more entertaining?" And yet, her lips twitched just a bit as she loosed the next arrow.

"Nah, I think I can forgive you. Just this once, though." Tommy dug around in his pocket. "Hey, so I got you something cool."

"Oh?" Kate frowned as she was presented with a handful of small devices. They looked like wireless earphones, except the design wasn't one she was familiar with. "What are those?"

"These? Are miniature communication devices, or something like that. Useful on the field."

"Right. And where did you steal them from?" Kate sighed. "Are you trying to get us kicked out?"

"Hey, give me some credit. I didn't steal them, I built them. Sure, the design's by Stark because fuck if I know how to do that shit, but these puppies were put together by yours truly."

"I see." Because that made things so much better. "So you know how to make them work, then?"

"Should I?" Now why wasn't she surprised?

"Well, it might be useful. If we ever hope to get any use out of them, that is. Otherwise, they're not worth much. Too small to even serve as paperweights."

"See, here's where the true genius of it comes forth." Tommy's grin widened a bit. He was obviously impressed at his own cleverness. "I may not know how to use these, but I'm sure JARVIS does."

"You're planning to ask JARVIS how to use your stolen Stark tech?"

"I already told you, I didn't steal shit. The components were there and I put them together. After assembling a load of other ones for him, mind, so it's not like I just walked in and then walked out with finished products." Tommy glanced up in the general direction of the ceiling. "JARVIS? Are these things linked together or what?"

"They are capable of communicating directly with similar devices within their operational range, as well as various other devices designed to pick up such signals," JARVIS replied without even a hint of reproach in his voice. "For the time being, I have taken the liberty to adjust the four sets you attained to their own shared frequency, though I can also connect them to the other ones if it turns out to be necessary."

"Hear that?" Tommy was practically beaming at her, now. "If JARVIS is willing to cooperate, it can't be stealing!"

"Sir estimated you might make use of the opportunity and thus authorized me to make such changes to the frequency." And why did it not surprise Kate one bit that Tony Stark was still one step ahead? "He also wishes to let you know that he is rather impressed at your operational speed and will let you know when your compensation is ready for use."

"Sweet." Tommy grinned. "Any time he needs stuff done fast, I'm entirely accepting of further bribes."

Kate raised her eyebrows. "Do I want to know what he used to convince you to work for him?"

"Is it enough if I tell you it's probably not illegal and likely safer than the alternative?"

"Why does that not sound very promising?" Kate sighed and drew her bow once again. "JARVIS? Is it something I should be worried about?"

"Master Thomas's estimation is actually quite accurate." And if JARVIS said that, she could actually believe it. "In return for his services, Sir offered him access to a secure place to utilize the more explosive aspects of his powers without endangering people or causing undue structural damage."

"Now why am I not surprised that they'd find a shared love for explosions?" Taking aim, she loosed the arrow before looking at Tommy. "So. Should I be worried about this arrangement?"

"Why would you? I help him, he lets me blow up stuff, everyone's happy."

"I was asking JARVIS. We've more than established by now that you do not know the meaning of restraint when it comes to explosions." As he started to protest, she shook her head. "The UN building, Tommy. You don't get to speak."

"If you'll allow me to speculate, I have to say this seems like an advantageous arrangement," JARVIS said. "It will provide Master Thomas with an outlet for his excess energy that will hopefully stall his boredom. And on the other side, I do not foresee Sir backing out of this particular arrangement, certainly not as long as he receives readings of any explosions Master Thomas causes with his kinetic energy. Sir may have retired from general weapons manufacturing, but that does not mean it's still not his main field of interest."

"Thanks, JARVIS." Kate set her bow down. Time to get her arrows back. "And it's really okay that Tommy nicked those comm devices?"

"As I stated previously, Sir foresaw the possibility. I believe that if he had not helped himself to some, Sir would have eventually offered them to you. Furthermore, if he had not been allowed to take any, rest assured I would have informed him of the fact."

"Good enough for me." Especially since she could get some amusement from the way Tommy's grin wavered when he realized he hadn't been quite as subtle as he had hoped. "Tommy? Mind getting my arrows for me?"

"Oh, I don't know." Tommy's grin returned in full. "What's in it for me?"

"Your continued status as my favorite male Maximoff twin?"

"Ouch, that's harsh. So would my main competition be Billy or Uncle Pietro?"

"Well, you know I like getting things done swiftly, so…"

"So you'd abandon me in favor of my older, less attractive copy with one failed marriage behind him already? I'm wounded, Kate, really, that hurt."

"Or you could just get me my arrows."

"Oh, sure. You're only interested in me for my abilities, is that it?" And yet, he ran off to pluck her arrows out of the targets.

"Now, you know that's not true." She smirked as he returned with her arrows. "I have a deep appreciation for the rare occasions you take your time."

"Oh, baby, you know you're the only one I would go slow for." Tommy slung an arm over her shoulders. "So, want to help me pass the time~?"

"I think I could be persuaded." For a moment, she leaned closer to him, before stepping away to pack away her bow. "JARVIS? Let us know when dinner's ready, please."

"Very well, Miss Kate." With that, JARVIS fell silent, leaving them to themselves as they left the range.

It was about time Tommy slowed down for a moment, again.

*

Tony had, over time, become more used to intrusions in his workshop. Pepper reminding him about something that had to be done, Bruce asking about his opinion on something or introducing a new idea, Steve looking for inspiration for his art; the more people he allowed close, the more his former alone time was cut into. However, the one thing he was most definitely not used to was finding people in his workshop without him there. If he wasn't present, what reason would anyone else have had to be there?

Apparently, someone had found a reason, as he found Tommy standing at a work station, studying a set of schematics. It was, Tony realized, the blueprints for the comm link Tommy had helped him assemble earlier.

"Hey, JARVIS? What can you tell me about this?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to clarify what you mean, Master Thomas. There is quite a lot I could tell you about the plans you are perusing."

"How about you start by explaining this shit?" Tommy waved a hand toward the blueprints. "I know how everything's put together, I've done it enough times. Doesn't mean I know what it all does."

"Actually, I can probably help you with that better than JARVIS." Tommy spun around in a flash, startled by his sudden appearance. "I mean, not to say JARVIS doesn't know everything I do and then some, but I've got a ton more experience with explaining shit. That, and JARVIS can be a condescending old bastard sometimes."

"And you've never condescended in any manner, huh?" At least the boy had the confidence to face him, arms crossed over his chest.

"I didn't say that. Just that I won't look down on you if you have a slower processing speed than my central computer system. And before you say anything, yes, I know your brain works fast, too, but I think you might still be just a mite behind JARVIS on the uptake."

"Yeah, well, JARVIS is still more likely to help me than you are."

"Well, that all depends." Tony made a gesture, bringing the blueprints to the center of the workshop and blowing them up. "For example, I'm somewhat curious why you wanted to learn more."

"What's it matter to you?" Ah, yes. Here was the old familiar defiance.

"Matter? Nothing, really. However, it's not exactly what I would have expected." Tony shook his head. "I don't mean I didn't expect you to want a closer look at the plans. Okay, so I wasn't thinking it was likely, but it's not a total surprise, either. What I do wonder is why you'd want to look at these blueprints in particular."

"They're the ones you had me work from. It's not like I'd even know about any other plans you have, never mind have access to them."

"Nevertheless." Tony started picking out components and moving them aside, reorganizing them by function. "You didn't even try to access anything else. Instead, you went directly for the comm link." He paused, giving Tommy a serious gaze. "If you want me to explain, I want a good reason why."

For a moment, Tommy squirmed, and Tony half expected him to take off. Finally, though, he spoke. "…It's because of Billy."

"Oh?" Tony lifted his eyebrows. He had not expected that. "What does your brother have to do with this?"

"He — his magic doesn't work if he can't hear himself chant." Tommy looked away, an angry frown on his face. "Of course, there were people who knew that when he was captured by the government bastards. Like, for example, you."

"Not precisely me, but I get your point." And the anger. "Go on."

"They… they had these implants, right? I'm not sure how they put them in, they were all unconscious at a time, but… they were these devices, stuck in his ears, attached with spikes. He still has scars from them, the fuckers weren't exactly worried about causing damage. While he had those on, he could hear everything except his own voice — he heard exactly how the psycho who was dealing with them was planning to cut up Teddy, but he couldn't do anything about it."

"And you're afraid this might remind him of that?" Which was a reasonable enough worry.

"No. If that was it, he couldn't even wear headphones." Finally, Tommy turned to look at him again, and this time, there was fierce determination in his eyes instead of simple childish defiance. "I want to make sure that never happens again."

"I see." Tony nodded slowly. "And you think you could accomplish it by examining my design… how, exactly?" Even though he had a feeling he knew who had designed the original implants.

"Well, I don't know shit about these things. I've got no idea how they could have even made those things in the first place, never mind how to counter them. So, I thought I'd start by studying something simpler."

"See, that's a plan I can absolutely get behind." Tony slapped his hands together. "A nice, scientific approach, grand plans involving currently unattainable technology, and enough motivation you might actually make it through."

"Okay, that's a bit too easy." Tommy narrowed his eyes. "You're actually going to help me?"

"Sure! Always glad for an excuse to tinker some more. Hell, with the superspeed brain, you might actually be able to keep up with me once we cover the basics." He grinned. "So. You wanted to get started by learning how this thing works?"

He couldn't and wouldn't bear responsibility for the sins of his counterpart, but that didn't mean he couldn't try to prevent any further schemes on the man's part.


	11. Impending Doom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a chat with Steve and another with the resident lovebirds, Tony comes to realize there is something very important missing from his love life. However, he has to take a break from convincing Pepper about the sheer brilliance of his plan as Avengers are called to assemble. The kids don't get to go, but they do help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason there was no update yesterday is because I instead posted a [ficlet in another 'verse](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1079561). The ficlet serves as a prequel for an AU fic I'm working on; it's tangentially related to this fic in that after all the agony I'm putting the poor kids through in this story, I wanted an AU where all the kids get happy families and all the adults get their most loved ones.

Tony was working again.

This, in itself, was not exactly unusual. Tony worked often and a lot, certainly more than Steve would have ever guessed had he not seen the proof of it with his own eyes. For someone with a reputation mostly for the hedonistic side of life, Tony definitely took his work seriously.

However, much though Steve could respect all that, there were definitely times when working hard was not appropriate. Spending all his time in the workshop on one of the very rare days Pepper actually had time off was definitely one of those.

"You need to stop." It didn't surprise him much that Tony didn't even look up from whatever it was he was tinkering with. "Tony, I said, you need to stop."

"I heard you the first time." Tony still didn't look at him, his word slightly unclear as he held some tool or another in the corner of his mouth. "You just need to be a bit clearer on that."

"I'd think it's a pretty simple statement." Steve frowned.

"Yes, well, people have told me to stop quite a few things over the years." Tony lifted a pair of goggles from his eyes to his forehead, a small trickle of sweat running down the side of his face. Steve did his very best not to follow that trickle with his gaze. "As such, I'd like a confirmation on what it is you have now decided is a bad habit. Drinking? Putting myself into danger? Womanizing I'm not going to accept, I've been very good about that since Pepper gave me a chance."

"Actually, I just meant you should stop working." Steve sighed at the utterly scandalized look on Tony's face. "Not entirely, of course. Just, you know, for a while. Go spend some time with Pepper."

"And why exactly are you so concerned about that?" Now Tony was giving him an almost suspicious look. Shit. Was he that obvious?

"Because I can see she makes you happy, and I don't want to see a friend throw something like that away." Steve did his best not to let anything but friendly concern show on his face. Not even if that trickle of sweat had reached Tony's collar bone, just about to disappear under the collar of his slightly too small t-shirt. "Because you need her by your side, and though I have little knowledge about relationships, even I know they sometimes need work."

"See, the thing about this is, Pepper deals with me all the time." Tony shook his head. "Not only that, she works very hard. So, when she has a day off, the last thing I need to do is crowd her from the start. I need to give her time to relax, have some time to herself, take a bath or whatever it is women do to relax, except Natasha because she probably tortures mafiosi for fun, she's terrifying enough. But anyway, the best thing I can do for Pepper is not bother her for the whole day."

"How can that be good for your relationship with her?" How could he not take every chance to be close to such an amazing woman?

"I don't know if you've noticed, Cap, but I can get a bit much sometimes even for people who aren't dating me. And in every relationship, sometimes you do need some space." Tony picked up a screwdriver, tossing it from one hand to the other. "I let Pepper get her private time, and then for tonight I have had JARVIS make reservations at a nice restaurant, because whatever you may think I'm actually not an utterly hopeless oaf when it comes to retaining a girlfriend. I did manage not to get dumped before you came along, after all."

"Sorry." Steve sighed. "I didn't mean to intrude, it's just… I do like seeing you happy." And seeing Pepper happy, too, but then the two seemed to be rather dependent on each other.

"Do you, now." Tony was giving him a strange sort of a look, now, one that Steve wasn't sure he knew how to interpret. "Well, I assure you, I'm not about to let go of Pepper so easily. Also, she would let me know if she couldn't survive the day without me. Pepper's never been too shy about informing me when she's disappointed with me."

"Uh. Right." Steve paused. "Do you… need me to remind you to stop working before tonight?"

Tony was about to protest, that much was clear from his expression, but then he paused. "You know, that might actually be a good idea," he said. "I do sometimes mute JARVIS when I want to focus. So, yeah, that would be appreciated."

"Good to know I'm not entirely unnecessary after all." Good to know there was something he could do.

He didn't want to see either of such beautiful, brilliant people not getting the love they deserved.

*

Clint would definitely have teased the hell out of Tony if he'd heard it took him a full minute to realize anything was off in the gym.

To be fair, the place had a rather high ceiling, and unlike some people he could name, he wasn't a tried and true assassin with years of experience under his belt, so he didn't look up as a matter of reflex the moment he walked through any given doorway. Of course, Clint would be unlikely to cut him any slack for those factors, but then Clint was also something of a dick sometimes, so Tony found it rather easy to ignore his opinion on the matter. The important thing here was that he noticed what was going on without getting anything dropped on his head.

"So." He craned his neck to look up, near the ceiling, where Billy and Teddy were holding hands, spinning around in some kind of weird choreography. "Is this some kind of otherworldly mating dance or something? Because I want a warning before any clothes start to come off."

"Hey, some of us have actual manners." Billy gave him a grin, as though he wasn't the one currently transgressing against the very foundations of physics. The boy was also glowing blue. That couldn't be natural. "Teddy's just making sure I don't fall if my magic fails all of a sudden."

"Wait, you mean you aren't the one keeping him up in the air?" Because the only thing Teddy had going for him were green, bat-like wings, which, while rather respectable in their span, couldn't possibly be enough to hold his whole huge, scaly body in the air. "And now I'm not sure what's more terrifying, that he's the one flying reliably with those wings of his, or that I actually considered it more likely that you might be keeping both of you up with your magic."

"Oh, don't tell me you aren't used to strange mindsets after all this time." Billy gave him a grin. "I could say a thing or two about the likelihood of something like the Iron Man armor taking to air."

"Hey. You do not insult the armor." Tony pointed an accusing finger at them. "It's far more scientifically plausible than any of your magic shit."

"I thought you'd managed to rationalize that?" Billy let go of his boyfriend's hands, now, and Teddy immediately made to grasp him again. However, Billy seemed to be floating more or less securely, doing a somersault in the air. "Don't worry, Tee. I've got this."

"You'll still have to forgive me if I'm somewhat worried about your squishy little human self."

"I should probably ignore any and all implications there that you might not be entirely human." Tony quirked an eyebrow up at the young men so callously mistreating the fundamental principles of the universe. "Unless, of course, there is something you two would like to tell me?"

"Uh." The two glanced at each other. "You know how Billy and Tommy have special abilities because they are mutants?" As Tony nodded, Teddy continued, "Well, I'm not. And by that I mean both that I'm not a mutant, and... I have no special abilities."

Tony raised both eyebrows, now, looking far up in the air where the boys were now flying. "You know, I've heard quite a few more believable claims."

"It's true, though." Teddy gave him a somewhat sheepish look. "I can't do anything that isn't perfectly ordinary... For my species, that is."

"Right. So you are actually not a human." Tony tilted his head to the side. "Do elves come in green nowadays, or what is this about?"

Teddy snorted. "If I was an elf, Billy wouldn't have waited this long to marry me, the geek he is."

"It's almost as good, though." Billy threw him a grin. "Actually, Teddy's an alien."

"Not Asgardian, I suppose?" Because while he did have the big and blond and muscular down pat, Tony couldn't recall Thor turning into a lizard man at any point, nor did the kids have any medieval weaponry at hand.

"Nothing that cool." Teddy flew lower, now, landing softly on the floor. "I don't think the name would say anything to you, JARVIS at least had no data under the name. But since you seem to be curious, my mother was what in our world you would call Skrull."

That sounded vaguely familiar. Not familiar in that he knew what it was, but certainly this was not the first time he heard the term. If only... "That's it." He snapped his fingers. "Kate and Tommy were babbling something about Skrulls when you had just arrived."

Teddy made a face. "Yeah, about that," he said. "Before Kate figured out we were in another world, they thought that since you obviously were not our Cap and Tony, you might be transformed Skrulls. We don't have the best of relationships with them, since my mother disobeyed their emperor."

"Authority figures can be a pain sometimes, eh?" Tony shook his head. "Wait. You keep saying only your mother was this Skrull alien thing. So, what? They can interbreed with humans?"

And again the kids looked at each other, Billy floating down to the ground as well. "Well, we are kind of counting on it."

"Oh?" Surely there weren't too many ways to interpret that. "Planning to make use of it somehow?"

"Hopefully, some day." Teddy drew Billy close with a grin. "Not that we're in a hurry, but..."

"Skrull transformations can even affect physical sex," Billy clarified. "So when we're ready to start a family, that's probably going to be the first thing we try."

"That's an interesting approach." And he was just going to go right ahead and ignore how very unlikely it all sounded. "Don't think too many people will be happy to see it happen, though."

"We can't plan our lives around what others will approve of." Billy took on a rather serious expression. "Even if we found a pretty girl each and settled down in a suburb with white picket fences and two kids and a dog apiece, someone would start complaining because we got a Labradorian instead of a golden retriever. We'd rather just be happy the way we are, and not care about what anyone else will say."

"I suppose that's a good approach to life. Far as I'm concerned, good luck with your plan." Tony paused. "Well, as long as your chosen way of happiness doesn't involve kicking puppies or giving poisonous kittens to kids. I'm pretty sure at that point it's perfectly acceptable to get judgemental."

"Yeah, well, obviously some rules of morality still apply," Teddy chuckled. "Even if my beloved heathen is more likely to believe in the Prime Directive than the golden rule."

"Technically, it'd be more applicable here, not that I think he's very likely to keep his hands off your business," Tony pointed out with a grin. "I quite prefer my own version of the golden rule, myself."

"Oh?" Billy's eyebrows rose high. "Do I dare ask?"

"Oh, it's pretty simple, two words in all. It's certainly served me well enough over the years." Tony couldn't help but let his grin grow wider. "'Consenting adults.'"

Teddy snorted. "Somehow, that fails to surprise me," he said, arms reaching around Billy. "But then, that's really all that matters, right?"

"When it's relevant, at least." Tony paused. "You know, you two can get the gym all to yourself after all. I suddenly realized there's something I have to discuss with Pepper." Faced with two sets of grimaces, he waved a hand. "Oh, don't be such prudes. It's nothing like that, anyway." At least, not yet. "Just something I have to mention to her before I forget."

"Whatever you say." Billy didn't look entirely convinced, but, well, Tony probably couldn't blame him. He did have something of a reputation, too.

"If it's any consolation, I've got Cap's full blessing," he added as he hurried back out of the gym. That part wasn't entirely true, in that Steve had never said as much, but he was sure Steve would have approved of if he'd known. Once he got over a terminal case of embarrassment, that was.

If he could just get Pepper on board, this could be one of his best ideas ever.

*

"No, Tony." Pepper didn't even bother to look at him. "You are not allowed to go and suggest a threesome to Steve of all people."

"And why not?" Tony did his best not to look offended. One of his most brilliant ideas ever, and she shot it down without as much as a proper look in his direction! "Didn't we already agree he'd be an allowed exception to the whole no cheating thing?"

"One, you're the one who insisted he should be an exception. Two, it wouldn't be cheating if we both agreed to it. And three, I will not let you kill Captain America like that."

"Oh, please. If anyone could handle the two of us without an unfortunate heart attack, it's Steve."

"I think you know full well I didn't mean that." Pepper gave him a meaningful gaze. "He's very well adjusted to the modern world, I'll admit, and even managed not to have a conniption the other day when he realized there was a sex scene in the movie the kids were watching. However, I think such ideas would go a bit too far even for his comfort zone."

"Oh, come on. He's totally thinking about it already." At her doubtful look, he threw his hands wide. "What? He totally is!"

"Tony, I very highly doubt Steve Rogers is fantasizing about sharing his bed with both of us. And if he is, which you're not allowed to interrogate him about mind you, that still doesn't mean he'd be interested in making it a reality."

"Why wouldn't he?" That seemed like a baffling notion to Tony. "There's nothing better, is there? The hottest woman pretty much ever and me, and then there's Steve the fucking human perfection walking around like nobody's business. We'd be so perfectly sexy I'm pretty sure it'd break a law or two. JARVIS? Are there laws against excessive sexiness in the New York State?"

"None, Sir." JARVIS took a pause. "Unless you count various laws about public indecency."

"Yeah, no. Nothing like that." Tony shook his head. "Anyway, he totally wants you. I saw it in his eyes the other day when he was fussing about me neglecting you. Which reminds me, have I been neglecting you? I mean, I'm pretty sure I've given both you and JARVIS free rein to kick me in the ass, literally or metaphorically, if I'm doing that. Not like you've ever been too shy about nagging."

"Oh, you've been playing nice. For the most part, anyway." Pepper's lips twitched in that utterly attractive way. "And you'll have to forgive me if I don't entirely trust your ability to read someone's true feelings from the look on their face."

"You wound me, Pepper. You truly do. I don't think I will ever survive this terrible blow to my heart." Tony gave a dramatic sigh. "No, seriously. I think he really wants you, he just doesn't want to shoulder in on my territory, which, wow, I don't think anyone's ever given that much consideration to my feelings before. But since we're both agreed in that he's sexy and nice and all things fluffy, it really seems to me there's a pretty simple solution to all this."

"That, or maybe he just is trying to be a good friend and making sure you don't drive your one semi-successful relationship into utter ruin."

"See, that's the boring answer. I much prefer the version where he's madly in love with us both." Tony paused. "Or in lust with us. That works too."

"Yes, because Steve would be so likely to enter a highly untraditional arrangement simply to get laid."

"Yeah, he's got something of a good guy vibe about him, eh?"

"Tony, we're talking about Captain America." Pepper sighed. "At least, I thought we were. Has something changed, perhaps?"

"Hmm? Not that I know." Tony shrugged. "Maybe you should talk with him and see for yourself? Because apparently his blushing around you isn't enough evidence."

"He's just trying to be polite and isn't used to talking to women. Besides, you keep teasing him all the time."

"That's not true. I totally don't —" Tony's defense was interrupted by something that made his blood run cold.

"My apologies, Sir," JARVIS said, and actually sounded apologetic for once. "I do hate to interrupt, but I'm afraid there has been an alert from SHIELD." It paused. "An alert for all the Avengers."

Tony swore aloud, and he was fairly sure he heard Pepper echoing him.

*

Something was going on.

That much was clear from the way the adults were rushing about. Clint had abandoned her in the middle of shooting practice as JARVIS had alerted him. As she had followed him up, Steve had practically run down the corridor, speaking to someone on his communicator, half his uniform on. And here was Tony, manipulating three screens at once, talking with JARVIS so fast she might not have understood a thing if she hadn't been so used to interpreting Tommy's hastier remarks.

"I can't believe I'm actually asking," she walked into the living room, finding Teddy and Billy already there, "but is something going on?"

"If there isn't, I'd sure like an explanation," Billy replied. "We were watching a movie when he came in and shut the big screen because it was distracting him."

"Still technically my place, I'd like to remind you," Tony said, not turning his gaze from the screens he had projected at the windows. "So if it's distracting me, off it goes."

"Because you obviously can't do whatever this is anywhere else."

"Well, it'd be pretty inefficient. For one thing, this is closest to anywhere I can get a suit put on, and for another," he glanced over his shoulder before turning back to his screens, "I need your help."

"Our help? Who needs our help? With what?" Tommy appeared right next to Kate, his eyes shining. "I saw Bruce take off his shirt. There'd better be an Avengers mission coming up because I'd hate to think such a sensible man has taken to stripping."

"There is. And related to that, I had this absolutely brilliant idea, and no, you're not allowed to argue." Tony now turned towards them entirely. "We're going to be heading out in a moment, but since it's going to take a bit before we figure out where to go and how to proceed, I might as well take this opportunity to share the intel with you."

"You sure that's a good idea?" Kate raised her eyebrows. "Isn't all that stuff usually classified? Not that you seem to have much respect for SHIELD either way, but…"

"See, here's the problem. SHIELD intel is classified, yes, but that's hardly relevant when we have no data that isn't coming directly from shaky camera phone pictures." Tony sighed, waving his hand to let JARVIS turn the screen on. "Apparently, SHIELD's intel on these guys amounts to shit all that hasn't been gathered in the last half an hour or so. Even so, they only just realized it might actually be a job for us instead of the regular police."

"And you think we might have encountered the same thing before?" Billy nodded. "That might work."

"It's kind of what I was hoping for, yes. I hate going into a fight blind, so if there's anything you can tell me to help that, I'd definitely appreciate it."

"Sounds reasonable enough." And yet Teddy was drawing Billy just a touch closer. "So what do you have on these people?"

"Not much." Another wave, and JARVIS started the footage. It was shaky and unclear, but he could still make out a swarm of green and metallic creatures rushing down the street, wrecking everything in their path. "These things appeared all of a sudden; we think they may have been hiding in a building somewhere in the area, as there's no signs of their arrival. So far we don't even know if they're people or some really clever robots."

"Oh, fuck this." Tommy sighed. "Of course of all the similarities we could have had, it's Doctor Doom who manages to exist in both worlds."

"Doctor Doom?" Tony raised his eyebrows. "I take it you do have some info on this?"

"Your good old megalomaniac type," Billy replied. "Has his own country that he runs with a more or less literal iron fist. Wants to take over the world because he believes he'd do a better job of running things. His specialty is creating robotic copies of himself to do all the dangerous stuff, so it's really hard to actually beat the guy himself. Oh, and he tends to combine magic and engineering. You're going to love that, aren't you?"

"Sounds like a splendid fellow," Tony replied with a wry tone. "So, you think that's what we're dealing with here?"

"Those metallic guys? Are probably Doombots. They're mechanical constructs, but have enough of an AI to fight on their own." Kate grimaced. "If they're like the ones we've seen, the fighting doombots have super strength, lightning gloves, flight capabilities and a self-destruct mechanism."

"Well, it seems we're truly going to have fun." Too bad Tony did not sound particularly amused. "Anything else you can tell me?"

"Yeah. Let us at him." Tommy hit his fists together. "I know this isn't strictly our Doom's doing, but the bots are the same anywhere. I owe the guy a bunch of collateral damage."

"No fucking way." Tony frowned. "This is a SHIELD operation; you can't stick a toe out of the Tower or they'll know right away. Besides, I don't care if you've fought him before, this is our job. We'd damn well better be able to handle this without any help from kids."

"Except in this case said kids have significantly more experience." Kate set her hands on her hips. "You're going to need our help."

"Tony's right." Steve appeared in the doorway, now properly dressed. "You should stay put here and make sure you're safe. We're going to have enough to do without having to worry about your safety."

"Yeah, well, we can damn well take care of ourselves!" Tommy spat. "It's not like —"

"Stop it, Tommy." Billy was looking at his hands, his voice quiet. "They're right. We shouldn't get involved in this."

"Billy —" Even Teddy was speaking up, now, frowning in concern.

"No, Tee. There's no reason for us to have been hiding here all this time if we now blow it at the first sign of adventure." Billy shook his head. "We're not Avengers anymore, remember? Besides, I'm sure everyone else can handle it. They've got SHIELD on it, too. We'd just be in the way."

"It's useless for you four to argue anyway," Tony pointed out before anyone could respond. "You're not going out, and that's a final. Besides," he added with a tiny hint of a smirk, "someone's got to make sure the Tower and Pepper stay safe, right?"

"Woo. High profile house-sitting." Tommy sighed. "Screw that, I'm gonna blow off some steam." He disappeared, a blur of motion speeding past her before he was gone. Kate hesitated for a bit, looking at Billy and Teddy, before following him.

Billy had Teddy. She had to handle Tommy, right now.


	12. Avengers Assemble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The swarm of doombots is a bit too much for five Avengers, but nine of them might actually have a chance. Afterwards, Nick Fury is furious, but Tony and Steve are not backing down.

It took some trying, sitting in the living room and not looking out of the windows, but somehow, Billy managed it. If he had turned to look, he knew he could have seen the occasional blast or flare of the battle, and right now, all he wanted to do was forget all about it.

This couldn't be happening. Somehow, he knew this was all their fault. This might have been a different Doom, but even so, he had only risen to action after they had arrived. Even though they hadn't done more than sat in the Tower, somehow, they had even managed to bring ruin upon this world.

He should have known better than to imagine he'd ever get peace anywhere.

"Billy?" the soft voice made him turn his head. However, as he did so, he was left staring.

Tommy, Kate, and Teddy were all standing at the door. However, instead of their usual clothes, they were all wearing their costumes. The ones he had just barely finished, and left in their room. Only Teddy was supposed to even know he'd gotten more than his cape done.

"What do you think you are doing?" His voice sounded rough even to his own ears. "That's — why would you do that?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Tommy raised his eyebrows, barely stepping forward and reappearing right next to him. "We're ready to go out there."

"The Avengers need help," Kate added, approaching at a more peaceful pace along with Teddy. "And right now, we're the only ones who can provide it."

"We can't, though. We promised we'd stay put." Billy bit his lip. It felt almost painful, seeing them dressed like that, and a part of him wanted so very badly to just jump up and rush out with them, but things weren't so simple anymore. They never had been, but now, he couldn't even pretend. "If we go out, especially in any form of heroics, there's no way SHIELD wouldn't notice."

"Yeah, well, if we don't go, they're going to find out anyway when we show up for the Avengers' funeral." Tommy was glaring at him as though he were the one responsible for the whole chaos. "They're getting slaughtered out there!"

"And if they can't do anything, what good do you think we'll be able to do?"

"Well, at least I want to try!" Tommy pointed out of the window as though his furious finger would be able to skewer some of the bad guys. "These may look like our Avengers, but they're total beginners at this whole team thing! More than that, they've never even dealt with doombots before!"

"Tommy's right, Billy." Kate was looking at him with a frown. "I know we decided to stop, but this is hardly the same situation."

"Back home, there are plenty of other heroes to handle any kind of situation." There was an almost pleading look on Tommy's face. "Here, it's just the Avengers, and they're entirely out of their depth here. We've got to do something, or New York's going to be burned to ground!"

"So why don't you just go?" It came out as more of a snap than he'd intended. "It's not like you need me out there!"

"Billy." Now even Teddy was joining them. "You know that's not true at all."

"Of course it is." He lowered his eyes. "All I can do is get people into trouble. Without me, we wouldn't even be here to begin with."

"Okay, first off, we still don't know for sure just how we ended up here. So, until we know something for certain, speculating about something like that is utterly useless." Kate touched his shoulder, her touch ever so light. "Besides, who says it's a bad thing we ended up here? Without us here, who would go out to help the Avengers?"

"Even so, there's nothing I can do." He'd tried, oh how he'd tried, but his magic remained distant despite all his efforts. "All I can manage to do right now is fly. What am I supposed to do, float around and dazzle them?"

"Oh, please." Tommy snorted. "I wasn't even in the team in the beginning, and even I know that's bullshit. Or have you entirely forgotten there was a time when you didn't even have magic?"

"Of course not. I remember all too well setting churches on fire." How Kate had ever forgiven him for that, he had no idea.

"No churches around here, just good, old-fashioned doombots. There's practically no bad guy better suited for a target when all you've got is lightning bolts."

"Why are you even arguing about this?" Why couldn't they just let him be? "Go out, the three of you. It's not like you can't do anything without me."

"Well, sadly, it's exactly like that." Teddy reached out a hand, beckoning for him to take it. "We're a team, Billy. We all decided to stop. We all need to get back to it."

"Just don't dally for too long," Tommy added. "They're just barely holding their own for now, but it could change any moment now!"

"But —" Before he could say anything, the TV screen on the far wall turned on. It was showing live footage from the news.

In front of his eyes, Captain America was forced to back down from a swarm of doombots. A moment later, the picture switched to Tony trying to fend off another number of them, only barely escaping to the sky.

"I don't know what you kids have gone through," Pepper said, standing in the doorway of the room. Apparently she was responsible for turning the TV on. "And I would never tell you what to do in this situation. However… if there ever was a time for quick decisions, it's now."

"We're not going without you, Bee," Teddy said, his tone quiet. "Now, we finally have the chance to repay them for everything they've done since we came here."

"Whatever you've said before, we're Avengers," Kate added. "We are heroes, first and foremost. And while this may not be our true home, at the moment it seems we are the only ones who can help save it."

"I even got your cape." And of course Tommy was standing there, too, holding the garment he hadn't had just moments before, likely the result of a split-second trip to Teddy and Billy's room. "It's not exactly a full costume, but you're wearing all black right now anyway, it's not like anyone will care."

The cape felt heavy on his shoulders, but right now, the weight was more reassuring than anything.

"Come on, Kate," he said, running towards the balcony. "Let's get you to a good vantage point." Beside him, Tommy disappeared in a blur of motion, and even as he stepped out and took himself and Kate to the air, he could hear the familiar sound of Teddy spreading his wings.

Maybe this wasn't their true home, but right now, it was all they had.

If they couldn't protect it, they would damn well avenge it.

*

This was, Tony decided, not good.

Of course, that much had been clear from the get-go. However, at that point, he had at least believed they could get this under control. Right now, it was looking less and less likely by every passing second.

There were more of these ridiculous robots every moment, three more stepping forward for every one he cut down. At least the civilians had been more or less evacuated from the area, but they were having trouble keeping the invasion restricted to a single area, which meant even more civilians were going to be in danger soon. Steve was trying to organize them over the comm, with occasional interjections from Fury as more information came in, but they were barely making a dent.

They were working as hard as they could, of course. However, there were simply too few of them to really make a difference. The electric bursts meant Natasha didn't manage to get in close as often as she would have liked, and from a distance she had the problem of depleting ammunition that Clint was struggling with as well. For now, Steve had told him to use his arrows only when absolutely necessary to save one of them from getting hurt and focus on surveillance otherwise. It wasn't ideal, but it was the best they could do; if he ran out of arrows, he'd be defenseless the moment one of the monsters got to him. Well, not quite defenseless, he was a trained SHIELD elite agent after all, but more so than any of them were comfortable with.

Hulk was the only one of them not having much of a problem with the new enemies. A few times he had been slowed down when enough of the robots gathered together, but that didn't happen too often when he employed a policy of indiscriminate destruction toward anything even remotely metallic and green. Honestly, the worst problem with the big guy was that he couldn't be everywhere at once. Steve was right in the fray, picking off the enemies one by one, directing Hulk and Tony toward any larger swarms. It was a strategy that should have worked, if not for the fact that they were so very badly overpowered.

It was like the invasion all over again, enough so that Tony was having a hard time not letting his fears get the better of him, no sir no hint of any trauma in here now get the hell out my head you stupid flashbacks. The enemies were everywhere, filling the streets, sometimes taking to air and getting far too close for comfort. His weapons could take them down no problem, usually with a single blast, but that wasn't much of a comfort when they were coming in from every direction at once. His suit was wonderful, and had the best targeting system there was, but having 360 degrees of coverage didn't mean he could attack each of those degrees at once.

"Isn't there any backup we could get?" he spat into his comm, taking down another couple of megalomaniac robots. "Anything? A scout troop who haven't gotten their 'Fighting Killer Robots' badges yet? Because however much I enjoy blowing shit up, this is really getting tedious."

"We've got agents at the perimeter," Fury replied, the fact that he wasn't swearing at Tony the only indication that he understood the gravity of the situation. "However, they can do little more than keep the enemy from spreading out. We've got War Machine en route, but it's going to be a while before he can get there."

"Good, but not good enough." Tony grunted as another electric blast hit his armor, thankfully mostly absorbed into the reserves. "Seriously. Scouts would be fine. Preferably boy scouts, they've already got this whole intolerance thing down pat, I'm sure it'd be useful in beating down ugly strangers."

"Iron Man, we all know the situation is less than ideal," Steve cut in. "However, right now we can't do anything except push on. You should —"

Tony never found out exactly what he should have done, as just then, the sound of a loud explosion cut Steve off. The moment Tony pinpointed the direction, his stomach lurched. It had come from the direction of the Tower. If these maniacs were getting close to Pepper…

"Oops, my bad," a new voice appeared on the line, one that definitely didn't belong to either Steve or Fury. "I'd apologize for blowing up such a nice car, but honestly, it was pretty beaten up already. And, hey, I took down at least four of these things!"

"Tommy?" Steve recovered from his shock the fastest. "What's going on? Why are you on this line?"

"Oh, JARVIS patched us through, he's efficient like that." Because that was obviously all the explanation needed, not. "I may have nicked some of those comm link thingies, which I figure is only right since I kind of put them together. And I figured that since they're just robots, it's fine to blow them to pieces, right? Not to stomp on robot rights or anything but they're all basically copies of the same insane guy so it's not much of a loss if I make them go boom."

"Who the hell is this?" Fury had regained his voice again. "And what the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"That would be Speed," Kate's cool voice cut in. "Apologies, he talks a lot. Iron Man, we've got Wiccan headed for your direction since you seem to be dealing with the biggest swarm. Hulkling's headed to back up Cap and Widow, Speed's picking up any stray ones. I'm in a good position to eliminate some stragglers and follow the flow of the fight, myself."

"I'm not going to ask again." Fury's voice was now well matched to his name. Tony kind of liked that.

"Young Avengers, reporting in as reinforcements," Kate replied, sounding mostly unfazed. "Sorry for the surprise, but we figured we'd best form our own battle plan since we know our team's abilities the best."

"Stark?" Great, now he was the bad guy. "Is this your doing?"

"Don't look at me. I told them to stay safe and sound at home. What can you do? Teenagers, they never listen." Tony gave an exaggerated sigh. "Look, can this wait? I know you like your secrets, but seriously, our manpower just almost doubled, with apologies to our likewise doubled ladies. How about we just take care of the situation now and you can yell at us later?"

"Iron Man's right, Sir. We do have more pressing matters." Oooh, yay, Cap was siding with him. Tony sure hoped JARVIS was recording this conversation for future posterity. "Hawkeye? Status report."

"Now, see, here's where it gets difficult," Clint replied, and he sounded almost cheerful. "You really should be more precise, Cap."

"Frankly? I don't care which one speaks. Whichever has something important to say is fine."

Immediately Kate started clarifying her earlier statement about their positions, the flow of enemies around her vantage point, the apparent weaknesses. It was, Tony decided, very good for a teenager. Definitely deserving of her name.

"Very well." Tony could just see Steve's firm, steady nod in his mind's eye. "I'll leave the directing of your team to you, Hawkeye. We'll let you know if any of us need immediate assistance."

"Understood, Cap. We'll do the same." In the background, Tony was sure he heard the faint, familiar sound of exploding arrowheads. "Oh, and Hawkeye? I kind of nicked your spare quiver when we were heading out. Hope you don't mind, your arrows are so much more fun than mine."

"Not at all, Hawkeye." Yeah, he could hear the grin there. "Good to know it's put to use."

Tony might have taken part in the chat, except just then he saw a flash of blue in the middle of two buildings nearby. As he watched, Billy came closer, approximately thirty feet further from the ground than Tony considered reasonable for any human without visible assistance. As a group of doombots approached, jetpacks taking them to air, Billy spread his hands, blue light crackling around them again before he struck down the attackers all at once. The bots fell to the ground, sizzling and sparkling and most definitely not functional.

"You know," Tony said, smirking behind his mask, "you're still no Thor, but for now, I'll take what I can get."

"Glad to know you approve, however little it may be." The red cape was there, fluttering in a wind JARVIS informed Tony did not exist at the moment, a stark contrast to simple black jeans and a t-shirt. It was clear he'd just thrown the cape over his ordinary clothes, but with the lightning and unearthly wind, it managed to make quite the picture anyway. "I've technically been on Asgard if that helps?"

"Technically?"

"Well, yeah. It was also kind of in Oklahoma. It was a bad day."

"I'll take your word for that." The bots were gathering again, but this time, they seemed more hesitant, faced with two opponents at once. "So, kid. Ready to take these bastards down?"

Billy smirked, and for once, there wasn't a hint of anything weighing him down, his eyes sparking with life and electricity. "I thought you'd never ask."

With any luck, they wouldn't have much left for Rhodey to do.

*

War Machine was standing in the living room.

It was probably kind of pitiful that Teddy still even had the energy to be geeking out at something like that. Over the past weeks he had slowly grown used to the reality of living with the Avengers — no, seriously, the Avengers, not the one he'd grown up admiring but also not entirely different — and yet here he was, half staring because War Machine was right there. Sure, he had taken off his suit when they had arrived at the Tower, but still. He had even flown right overhead as they'd been cleaning up the last of the doombots.

Right now, though, War Machine was simply a man who was arguing with Tony, presumably about how Tony should have let him know sooner instead of endangering kids, if the little snippets he was picking up were anything to go by. It was a good thing Kate had marched Tommy off to clean bot dust off himself as soon as they had arrived, or there probably would have been a more difficult confrontation about that particular point. As it was, though, it was just Teddy and Billy in the living room with the few adults who hadn't followed Tommy's example, Tony and his friend in a heated conversation while Steve was pacing in a corner, apparently focused on his phone discussion with someone. Fury, probably, if the comments during the fight were anything to go by. Teddy just hoped they weren't in too much trouble. Hiding from nigh-omnipotent government organizations was never fun.

It was useless to worry about such things right now, though. If SHIELD wanted to take action, they would deal with that when it happened. Right now, he had a more pressing concern at hand in the form of his boyfriend.

"Are you all right?" Billy looked mostly unharmed aside from some burn marks and tears to his new cape, but then, Teddy wasn't only asking about his physical wellbeing. Billy had been willing to go out, yes, but only after some serious convincing, and this was after a long time of refusing to have anything to do with heroics.

"I'm fine." Billy sighed, leaning closer to him. "I forgot how exhausting this kind of thing can be."

"Yeah, it really piles up fast." Teddy reached an arm around Billy, finally shifting down so they could get more comfortable. His Skrull form had plenty of advantages, but it was not exactly ideal for cuddling. "Other than that, though, how was it?"

"…I'll admit I'd missed that." There was a faint smile on Billy's face. "I mean… not the bad stuff, but this. Actually being able to make a difference somehow."

"Yeah." Teddy smiled back at him. "It's good to be a hero, isn't it?"

"I guess." Billy moved closer and let his head fall on Teddy's shoulder. "Are we actually watching Iron Man and War Machine argue about whether it's polite to leave some doombots for those heroes who are late to the party?"

"I know. Amazing, isn't it?" Teddy chuckled. "Also, apparently involving us was utterly irresponsible, but Tony had no choice because his bestie wouldn't show up in time, so really if anyone put any kids in danger it was the extremely irresponsible war hero who was so slow they needed to get us out just to keep the city from falling apart."

"We actually, undeniably saved the day. This wasn't just us getting involved in a fight the adults could have handled, or worse someone having to bail us out of trouble. We went in when they weren't enough and managed to turn things around." Billy was so warm pressed against him. "This is what I was dreaming of when I wanted to become a superhero as a kid."

"That's the cool thing about being us; you get to live your dreams." Teddy paused. "Are you sure you're fine with this?"

"Yeah." At his noncommittal sound, Billy sought Teddy's hand with his. "Really, I am. It's… we were needed, we didn't make things worse, and we definitely saved some lives. None of us got even close to dying, unless Fury is going to glare us to death." He paused and then groaned. "Oh no. We're going to get glared to death by Nick Fury."

"No, you're not." And suddenly Cap was there, having finished his call and moved closer. "I have already had a talk with the Director. He next wants to speak to Tony, though judging by his tone I'd imagine yelling at Tony is closer to it. In any case, you will not have to deal with him."

Teddy raised his eyebrows. "And if he decides he wants to lock us up or something?"

"Believe me, I will not allow that to happen." Cap had a firm expression on his face. "Existing is not a crime, and you didn't do anything during the battle we didn't do. I will not allow you to be taken away simply because of where you come from."

"…Thank you." And suddenly, Billy seemed smaller somehow, though Teddy suspected it was simply because he was pressing himself closer. "I'd really rather not go on another international run."

"Of course not." The firm look softened somewhat into a genuine smile. "You're heroes, boys. Don't worry about anything else right now."

"We'll try not to." Teddy still kept his arm securely around Billy. "I think we'd better do like everyone else and go get showered and then get some rest."

"That sounds like a plan. I'll try to pry Tony away from his argument long enough to call Fury and then have JARVIS see about getting some pizza for everyone."

Teddy grinned. "You know, if I wasn't already happily engaged, I could kiss you for that."

"Hm, I don't know. I wouldn't get mad, provided I got to watch."

Steve just chuckled. "Afraid I'll have to pass on that offer. Now, go get cleaned up and changed. You can eat when the pizzas arrive, then get some much-needed sleep. We all worked hard today."

"Definitely." Teddy squeezed the hand Billy had in his. "Come on, Bee. We wouldn't want your brother to be the sensible one in post-battle protocol, would we?"

As they made their way to their room, Billy floated just a bit, feet barely above the floor, apparently without a second thought.

It was still far from having all his magic back, but the fact he was even trying filled Teddy with immense relief.

*

"What the Hell were you thinking, Stark?"

"That's really not a very specific question, you know." Tony couldn't help but draw a twisted bit of satisfaction from the angry frown on Fury's face. It wasn't the first time he gained such disapproving looks, but it also wasn't often that he felt quite as proud about it. "When was I thinking what? I'm thinking all the time, you realize. Would you perhaps be interested in my thoughts from last Friday? I've got to say those were some high quality thoughts."

"Don't get smart with me." Fury's frown deepened. "When exactly were you going to inform us about your house guests?"

"Uh, roughly never?" Tony shrugged. "I was rather hoping I'd get them back home without you lot ever finding out."

"And is there a particular reason for your secrecy?"

"Really? You're actually asking that?" Tony raised his eyebrows. "I've heard how you treated Thor the first time the poor guy came around, you know. I had no reason to assume you would treat interdimensional guests any better than you did interplanetary ones."

"Which is why you thought it was perfectly safe to invite them to stay in the Tower."

"And why wouldn't I have? It's my private property. Well, eighty-eight percent of it is, at any rate. I wouldn't think you'd have any say in who I let stay over."

"This is not a matter of my regulating your sleepovers, Stark. You could have compromised the security of the whole world."

"Really? Four teenagers compromise the world? I'll admit they're pretty good for their age, but not quite that good, surely. You flatter them, Director." Tony leaned back in his seat, fingers tapping at the arm rest. "Furthermore, I think we have already established that rather than endanger the world, they have helped us save it. Well, the New York part of it, anyway, but far as I'm concerned that's the most important bit."

"Which was also a decision you did not bother to consult us about."

"Okay, time out. I did not make any decisions." Tony let his eyes widen just a bit, the very picture of innocence. As if. "On the contrary, I made it very clear I did not want them to come out of the Tower. The kids decided to come out on their own, and I'm thankful for that, because they saved my ass and probably everyone else's, too. Partly, I might point out, because they actually knew what we were dealing with. Due to the whole interdimensional stuff and all."

"Rather convenient, isn't it, that the first extraordinary threat since their arrival just happened to be someone they'd faced before?"

"It's equally convenient, I would say, that they just happened to know the heroes whose living room they accidentally landed in." Tony raised his eyebrows. "Besides, from what little I've managed to hear from them, it's not as much that they just happened to know Doom, but rather that Doom happened to be one of several threats they know."

"So you're suggesting that whatever's going on in our world, they have a larger reference base?"

"Considering their heroes have been doing that stuff out in the public for decades? When they grew up idolizing those heroes, following their every move, up until the point when they joined forces? Yes, I'm pretty sure they know more about the potential threats than even SHIELD. Not all of them, no, because the worlds are different after all, but considering they gave me rather precise information about the abilities of those doombots before we even went out to fight, I would say there just might be other similarities, too."

"Assuming those bots didn't come along with them." What, the actual name wasn't good enough for the big and mighty Fury?

"I think I'd have noticed if they had been skulking around my place for a few weeks. Just like I trust that if the kids were plotting something sinister against us, they would have done so already."

"So that's it? Because this one fight went well, no harm, no foul? Are you going to be the one to explain all this to the media?"

"What's there to explain?" Tony raised his eyebrows. "New Avengers! More heroes to keep us all safe! What's more, Hulkling is obviously in control; there's already a couple of videos online of him very calmly ordering people to evacuate. If anything, this can only raise the Avengers' approval ratings."

"That doesn't change the fact that all this happened without the approval of anyone with actual authority."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the case with all kinds of vigilante justice." Tony shrugged. "But, hey, your call. You can go along with this, give your blessing to our temporary helpers and be damn well thankful you still have a team to cuss at. Or, if you're really convinced you're a threat, you can lock them up."

"Because that would be such a simple matter."

"Oh, of course it would. So perfectly simple. I can already see the headlines. 'Teen heroes imprisoned for the crime of caring!' Nah, not quite striking enough. How about 'Heroes under fire!'? That'd go great with the best picture. You know, the one where Speed's carrying a mother with a baby out of a building on fire. I'm sure the citizens will understand why their saviors should be considered a threat."

"Get to the point, Stark."

"The point? My point is this: you really, really don't want to treat these kids as bad guys. One, because they're not and that'd be an asshole thing to do, and two, because trying to do so would mess things up quite a bit, I can guarantee that much. Instead, why don't you just relax? If we're all lucky, they're going to be home before we know it. And until then, they might well prove useful in our efforts to, you know, keep the actual threats at bay."

"In other words, you want me to let you do as you wish."

"Oh, I'm not quite that demanding. Instead, I propose a deal." Tony grinned. "You stop pushing on this issue, and I'll take a certain someone off your hands."

"Someone?" Fury lifted his eyebrows. "And who exactly would that be?"

"Oh, I think you know who I mean." He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "It's only logical, really. I bet if she hears about our guests, she'll want to pick their brains at the earliest opportunity."

"And you think it'd be a great idea to add more people to your questionable little troupe?"

"Why not? It doesn't have to be permanent. If Thor shows up, he's probably going to head there anyway. And besides, my Tower's the place that's recently seen the most alien activity outside New Mexico. Well, alien activity that wasn't entirely covered up by the government, at least."

"Right." Fury sighed. "Well, she is a free woman. I will inform her about your offer, though I'm not so sure she will be willing to leave her laboratory any time soon now that she's finally back from Norway."

"Really?" And now, he almost laughed aloud. "Be sure to tell her that I've got a laboratory all free for her use right here in Stark Tower."

Now, who said he didn't know how to deal with people?


	13. Persons of Interest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Fury taken care of, the Young Avengers wake up to find themselves famous. Tony, of course, failed to go to sleep at all, but Pepper will see that corrected. And some time later, Jane gets to have a very interesting conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yesterday's Avengers update was the first chapter of [Mothers and Sons](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1082979), which I'm writing because the kids deserve to have happy families and homes in _some_ reality at least.

"So." Someone was in their bed. Someone who most definitely wasn't Teddy, because Teddy was right here under his arm, and besides this someone sounded an awful lot like Tommy. "You ready to wake up yet?"

"No way." Billy nuzzled closer to Teddy, hiding his face. "Get lost."

"Like you'd get rid of me that easily." Tommy grabbed his shoulder and shook. "Come on, get up. There's something you've got to see."

"I don't care. It can wait." Mmm, warm Teddy chest. The perfect thing to hide his face with.

"Oh my God, are you naked under those covers? Is that why you won't get up? And here I thought you were all innocent and pure, baby brother. My image of you has been sullied forever."

"Yes, that's it." Whatever excuse worked. "I'm naked, we're both naked, now get away before our naked gayness infects you or something."

"Hmm… nope, don't think so." The bed shifted as Tommy moved. "Pretty sure I've seen all you two have to offer at some point, yet you've failed to convert me. So, nope, going to keep bugging you until you get up."

"I hate you." It might have sounded a bit more convincing if he hadn't said it in such a petulant tone, but it wasn't his fault, he'd just been woken up. "Why can't you go bother Kate?"

"I'm more concerned with getting kicked out of her bed than out of yours." Which, okay, was probably a valid point. "Now, come on. You, too, frog-in-law."

"You know, your insults would be more effective if they didn't come with the implication that you do consider me an in-law." Teddy shifted, making Billy groan in protest as the warmth moved away. "Which is good, because if I was actually offended, I might think up bits you definitely haven't seen."

"Yeah, I'd rather not know too much about your bed habits, thanks." Tommy bounced a little. Where did he get all his energy? …Aside from the ridiculous metabolism and other such things?

"So what is it?" Billy rolled over to his back with reluctance, opening his eyes enough to look at Tommy. "This world has minimum speed limits instead of maximums?"

"I should be so lucky." Tommy shook his head, grinning widely. He was even properly dressed, the bastard. It couldn't possibly be a decent time yet. "Guess what? We're famous."

"You know, that's kind of old news." Teddy sat up next to Billy, stretching. It was a much nicer sight than his hyperactive brother, muscles rolling under perfect skin. "Or did you miss the whole Avengers thing?"

"Yeah, well, that's not what I meant." And again a bounce. Definitely too much energy. "I meant we're famous in this world, too, now."

"What?" Billy blinked slowly. "And how'd that happen?"

"You were there yesterday, right? And greenie here didn't slip you anything stronger than a painkiller for the magical headache?" Tommy raised his eyebrows. "We helped save New York, remember?"

"I was half hoping that was a dream." And half dreading the same, but he wasn't going to say that. "And now we're all over the news again?"

"Please tell me they didn't call me Teen-Hulk again." And why did Teddy look more amused than anything?

"Nope. Apparently these guys actually have a half-decent PR department. Our actual code names were leaked online not half an hour after we got home, along with pictures that made us look more like heroes and less like dangers to the society." Tommy grinned. "They're claiming we're a sort of probationary Avengers, and got called in as temporary back-up when the situation got bad. I suppose it's so they don't have to offer too many explanations when we go home."

"Right." Home. Whenever that happened. "And that's all right with SHIELD? I mean, we won't get in trouble or anything?"

"Well, it's all been cleared with Fury, for what it's worth." And here was Tony, appearing at the door Tommy had left open. Geez, was everyone going to show up in their bedroom all of a sudden? "He admitted people would be asking for explanations, so we'd be better off providing them with some than claiming there never were extra heroes in the first place. Also, you're welcome to have an online presence and deal with fans there if you want, long as you don't release any sensitive information. Like, you know, the little bit about your being from another world."

"Sounds reasonable." And of course Teddy was still nice and calm as ever. "And how many have declared war on us already?"

"Don't be stupid." Tommy's grin grew even wider. "Turns out, people love us. Must be the young and pretty thing going on for us."

Billy blinked. "You're kidding me." Okay, so this mission had gone better than the whole church invasion thing, and people had quite liked them the first time they saved someone from a burning building, but it'd still taken a while for them to gain actual fans.

"At last count, there were thirty-seven general fansites and a three-digit number dedicated to individuals. Still not much compared with us, of course, but it's pretty good for an overnight sensation." Tony grinned. "There's even love confessions for all of you, even though I'm pretty sure most people never even saw Kate outside of the really rather pretty press photo we released, and Tommy was mostly a blur."

"Love confessions?" Okay, that was it, he was dreaming. "Why?"

"Why, because you're heroes, of course." Tony stuck his hands in his pockets. "Oh, and one woman claims Hulkling here proposed to her in the middle of the chaos."

"For the record," Teddy said as Billy turned to look at him, "that didn't happen in my version of the events."

"Eh, it's still more believable than the one claiming to be pregnant with Wiccan's kid." At Billy's look of horror, Tony gave an innocent shrug. "What? At least she didn't claim it was conceived during the battle. Though from what I heard, you only ever visited her in a dream, so who knows? Maybe she's not entirely full of shit."

Billy dropped back down to the bed, groaning. "Please tell me that's a joke."

"Afraid not, kid. Don't worry, though. If there's something my lawyers know how to handle, it's bogus paternity suits." At Billy's half-glare, Tony shrugged. "What? I'm a big proponent of safe sex, I'd be irresponsible not to wrap it."

"First, totally too much information. And second, I love how you make it clear the only reason more of them aren't true is because you play it safe, not because you avoid sleeping with lots of women."

"Hey, I haven't been with anyone but Pepper since we started dating. For someone with my history, that practically counts as celibacy. So you don't get to lecture me, Mr. Barely Legal Consent."

"I'm not discussing this with you. It was bad enough with my parents."

"Oh, that reminds me." Tommy gave Billy his best attempt at an innocent look. "You'll remember to tell JARVIS when you run out of the condoms we ordered you, right? You know, just like Tony reminded us to do."

Teddy flushed at that, but Billy forced himself to face Tommy head on. He didn't have three brothers for nothing, and two could play this game. "Why would we ever run out? We're clean, monogamous, and neither of us can get pregnant unless Teddy's really trying. You and Kate can have our share if you want."

"Aaand I'm out." Tony stepped away from the doorway. "Pretty sure I'd break some law or another by listening to this conversation."

"I want to go back to sleep," Teddy murmured. "Please can we go back to sleep?"

"I second that." See, he already had his head in his pillow. "Tommy? Get lost."

"Okay, sure. I'll go set myself up some social media accounts to let all the silly girls know you're both busy in bed with each other." With that, Tommy was out.

"Sometimes," Teddy sighed, "I'm not sure if I should hate or love your brother."

"Only sometimes?" Billy burrowed back under the covers. "I feel like that all the time."

But right now, it didn't matter either way.

*

"Well, aren't you being chipper."

"Hm?" Tony looked up from his phone as he stepped into the kitchen, letting a smile take over his features. "Oh my! All my favorite people in one place at once. Is it my birthday and nobody told me?"

"You do tend to remember your birthday well enough." Pepper snorted, not lifting her gaze from the tablet she was working on while sipping at her coffee. "I assure you, our combined presence here is more due to the fact that Steve made excellent breakfast and was willing to share rather than our atrocious taste in people, as evidenced by our continued tolerance of you."

"Pepper, you wound me. Truly, you do. Besides, doesn't Steve usually make breakfast around five or so? It has to be at least seven by now." He glanced at his phone again. "Wow, closer to eight. Seriously, is this your second breakfast? Are you suddenly a hobbit?"

"Some of us happen to operate on the principle of needing and getting more sleep after straining ourselves," Steve noted. "And some of us actually work for our world-saving reputations instead of letting robotic prosthetics do it for us."

"Oh my, sass. Tell me, is it my bad influence? Because damn I'm proud if you say yes. Like, seriously. Ohhh, is that fresh coffee?"

"Yes, and I'll thank you not to drink every last drop." Nevertheless, Rhodey was smiling, so he couldn't be entirely serious about such silly things.

"Please. Like you even did anything yesterday." Tony snorted before bringing the cup to his lips. Mmm, delicious coffee.

"Excuse me? I flew here all the way from Germany because I heard your shiny ass was in trouble! It's not my fault you decided to run a babysitting operation on top of your superhero commune."

"First, it's not my fault you decided to break my heart by going all the way around the world. Second, they're all seventeen or older, old enough to look after themselves. And third, it wasn't actually me who involved the kids. They decided to join us out of their own free will, encouraged by none other than my ever so lovely Pepper."

"Oh, don't blame me. They'd more or less made up their minds. I just gave my blessing so they wouldn't feel quite so bad about breaking their promise. Not to say I'm proud, because they're still mostly children, but they are old enough to make their own decisions."

"Yeah, well, from what I've gathered they have more experience at this whole world-saving stuff than any of us, except maybe me, and that's only by a hair's breadth. So I'd imagine they can make informed decisions, age aside." Tony sat at the table next to her. "Bacon and eggs. Is there any left for me?"

"Sure, I made plenty." Steve glanced at him. "Where have you been? Usually kitchen is your first stop when you wake up."

"Assuming he wakes up." Pepper rolled her eyes, but her smile was full of what Tony chose to interpret as amusement. "I'm reasonably sure he stayed up the entire night."

"Hey, not my fault there was a miniature scandal and everything." Well, he could just as well get up right away to steal some of the bacon and eggs before the kids showed up. "Fury was easy enough to deal with, but then I had to get the PR side and the lawyers all fired up just in case, and someone had to monitor how things were turning out, and then I looked over all of our equipment to see what needed work or repairs. Obviously I need to make more automated quivers if we're going to have two archers on the field ever again, and the kids don't even have any armor beyond what Teddy has by nature. And then I had to inform them about their sudden popularity online, seriously, they're so lucky not to have things like weapons manufacturing or breaking random city districts in their past, people were way less approving when we saved the world the last time."

"So you haven't slept at all?" Steve frowned. He was even cuter when he got all worried. "Tony, that can't be good for you."

"Oh, shut up, Captain Four Hours a Night. I'll sleep when I'm tired. Right now, there's too much to do." Of course, he'd forgive Steve for speaking such nonsense, if only because he kept Tony so well fed. "Now, I'm pretty sure I've already made my appreciation clear, but why am I treated to such an unusual sight? Sure, Rhodey mentioned last night he's got today off, which is awesome by the way, and I fully plan to make use of that fact, and Steve here overslept like woah, but you're usually out of the Tower by now, Pepper."

"You only have yourself to blame for that, I'm afraid." Pepper raised one perfect eyebrow at him, her eyes still on the tablet. "Whenever Iron Man does something major, it affects the company, and I'm the one left dealing with the fallout. So, with the revelation of all new heroes obviously under your wing, I'm stuck having to deal with the board and investors who are worried you won't have time for R&D anymore. Because I obviously wouldn't have much time left for my actual work anyway, I decided not to go to office until lunch and deal with my e-mails and calls from here until then."

"Ah, that's my beloved Pepper, efficient as always." He flashed her a grin. "You'll forgive me, won't you?"

"Well, I gave you my permission to take them in, and I already stated they had my blessing to go out, so I suppose it'd be unreasonable of me to actually blame you for the mess. Just don't complain when I'll probably be very late coming home tonight." As he opened his mouth to speak, she silenced him by finally glancing at him. "So late, in fact, that you had better be asleep by then. I'm hoping to enlist the help of these fine gentlemen in making sure you actually get some rest before you're literally at the crashing down stage."

"You can count on us, Ma'am." Was Steve smiling? Yes he was. Obviously at Tony's expense, the horrific traitor. He was never going to be forgiven for this transgression, the monster.

"But my bed's going to be so cold without you there. You couldn't do that to me, Pepper, could you?"

"You left me alone there last night. Since Rhodey's probably going to have to leave before then, you'll just have to ask Steve to hold you until you fall asleep."

"Now, there's a thought." And the sight of Steve blushing at said thought was even worth Rhodey's grin. "Oh, and Pepper? I may or may not have invited another woman to stay here. But she's Thor's girlfriend, so that's okay, right?"

"I will let you live." Pepper returned to her tablet. "Now get something more than coffee into your stomach before you pass out."

Please. It was almost as though she didn't know him at all. He could go much longer than this without food. But then, if there ever were three people he could count on keeping him in check, it was these three.

And God, he was so grateful for them.

*

This was going to be either terrible or awesome. Jane wasn't sure which, but she was damn well determined to find out.

She hadn't received much information, aside from the fact that Tony Stark was offering her a laboratory and living quarters in the newly fixed Avengers Tower, no strings attached. In most cases, this tended to fall under the clause of "too good to be true". However, the SHIELD agent who had given her the message — a new face she hadn't recognized — had assured her this was indeed very true and she could expect the promises to be fulfilled to the last detail. Besides, as Darcy had been quick to point out, it was better than faceless government goons, given Tony Stark's reputation for being less than perfectly obedient in the case of governmental decrees.

There had still been more negotiations, and various terms in black and white because she wasn't an absolute idiot, but at the end of it, she was standing at the entrance of the Avengers Tower. Her belongings, she had been assured, would be transported to her living quarters; Darcy would be following her later, once she got her own things settled, no don't worry Jane it's just little things, like that degree I'm kinda trying to work towards remember. As a result of this Jane was alone, with nothing except her laptop bag and the clothes on her back, trying to figure out where she was supposed to go.

"Miss Foster?" The sudden voice made her spin around, startled. "Mister Stark asked me to inform you that you are to head upstairs at your leisure."

"Uh, right." She blinked at the employee with a name tag and a pleasantly polite smile. "And how should I do that?"

"Follow me, please." The employee turned and started off at a brisk pace, making Jane hurry to keep up. "The VIP elevator down here is authorized access only, and besides ground floor will only stop at floors in the private part of the Tower. According to Mister Stark you have already been granted access, so everything should be in order."

"I have?" She certainly hadn't heard anything about that, nor had she received any kind of access code or keys. However, her not-quite-question went unanswered as she was instead led to a door somewhat apart from the rest of the elevators.

"Here you go, Miss Foster." The employee stepped aside. "Simply call the elevator as you wish."

"Right." Except there was no button or switch or anything like that in sight. Just a set of shiny doors, shut tight in front of her, with nothing to indicate this was indeed an elevator instead of some super secret vault that couldn't be opened at all. Somehow, she got the feeling she was being toyed with. "Uh, I'd like an elevator?"

"Certainly, Miss Foster." She might have jumped just a bit as she was answered by a smooth, British voice that certainly did not belong to the unhelpful employee. Before she could wonder about it, though, the doors slid open, revealing a roomy elevator with red walls. Right. Not creepy at all.

Jane stepped inside, somewhat cautious, finding the doors closing behind her. "What is this about?"

"This is the elevator, Miss Foster." At least the mystery voice didn't sound too amused at her expense. "Where would you like to go?"

"What are my options?" Hey, she could just as well play along.

"There are several. The elevator accesses two research floors, one of which houses your personal working space. You may also access the floors designated as Avengers living quarters and the common area, the training areas, or the floor containing your personal quarters."

"And where am I supposed to go?"

"Sir has expressed his desire that you join everyone else for dinner so that they may meet you, but until such time, there are no expectations that I am aware of."

"Okay. My floor, then, please?" She paused, even as the elevator started moving, only the slightest of vibrations indicating this. "Wait. Who are you?"

"My name is JARVIS, Miss Foster. I believe Sir is planning to introduce us properly at a later time."

"Right. I look forward to that, then." And right now she was just going to file this away under "Tony Stark's eccentricities". She had a feeling that folder was going to grow very big very fast.

"The pleasure will be all mine, I'm sure." And with that, she was left in silence for the remainder of her relatively short elevator ride.

When the doors opened again, she found herself looking down a spacious corridor. One of the doors along it was open, and she could hear some kind of noise coming from there. People talking, if she wasn't entirely mistaken. Curious, she walked closer to peek in.

Her things were there. Her books and magazines, her clothes, even some of her furniture was here, some of it arranged around the room, some still in various boxes and packages. In the middle of all this were two teenage boys, mirror images aside from their hair, arguing about something.

"I'm just saying, it'd make a lot more sense for you to handle the clothes. You know a lot more about this shit than I do!"

"First off, nice stereotyping. And secondly, this is women's clothes, I don't know anything about that. You're the one dating a girl."

"Yeah, well, when I'm handling Kate's clothes, they're either on her or on the floor. I know shit about what I'm supposed to hang up or fold away or whatever."

"Am I to understand you are discussing my clothes?" They both spun to look at her, surprised expressions on her face. "In which case I'd have to ask exactly who you are and what you're doing with my stuff in the first place."

"Uh. Right." One of the boys, the one with dark hair, looked somewhat embarrassed. "Sorry. I'm Billy, and the idiot's my brother Tommy. You're Jane, right? We kind of got roped into putting your things away before you got here, but I guess we weren't fast enough."

"You mean you're not fast enough." The other boy, presumably Tommy, smirked. "And now you're being difficult because you wanted to cook with your sweetie instead, but Kate volunteered first, so you're stuck helping me."

"I see." Jane sighed. "Look, I'd really rather do this myself. I like to know where everything is, and if you put everything away, I won't be able to do anything." It was called controlled chaos, Darcy, look it up. "Also, I'm not sure that exactly addressed the 'who' part just yet."

"Oh, we're Avengers." Tommy hopped over to sit on her bed, looking far too casual for someone currently lounging in a total stranger's bedroom. "We were in the news recently. You know, for saving New York?"

"You're the new kids?" Jane blinked. There had been reports of new Avengers, and now that she thought about it Billy did look kind of like one of the heroes in the news clips, but she somehow hadn't made the connection. "Well, I suppose that explains why you're in the Tower."

"Uh, yeah." Billy rubbed the back of his head, looking somewhat embarrassed. "Ah, why are you here? I mean, if it's not rude to ask. Tony didn't really tell us much, except that you're a scientist and we're supposed to be nice to you."

"Of course he didn't." Jane sighed, getting to work with going through one of the boxes of books. "Yes, I'm Jane. Jane Foster. I'm an astrophysicist."

"Oookay." Tommy raised an eyebrow. "Engineer, chemist, and now a physicist. What, is he trying to collect one of every kind of scientist?"

"Well, we do have similar interests." Going by what little she'd heard about Doctor Banner, at least. "Stark's research led to the Iron Man, Banner's brought us Hulk, and I found Thor in the desert."

"Thor?" Billy's eyes practically lit up with excitement. "So you know him?"

"I'd like to think so. Not that we had a lot of time to chat or anything." Something that she was determined to change. "I'm currently working on finding a way to establish a more stable connection between Earth and Asgard."

"Sure, sure." Tommy gave her an annoying grin, now. "Have you tried driving around and trying to get picked up by a beam of light? Heard it works really good in the rural roads."

"I was thinking more along the lines of creating our equivalent of the Bifrost, but I'll keep your suggestion in mind." Jane snorted. "My assistant suggested I should start calling myself a xenobiologist, because she seems to think my main goal is gaining more intimate knowledge about aliens."

"And is it?" Well, at least they weren't beating around the bush.

"No. Well, yes, but no. My research was always more about the connections, wormholes and such. The aliens just came along as something of an accident." She shook her head. "And now I have probably more information on aliens than any other scientist not wearing sun glasses as a job requirement." Because who knew what kind of data those SHIELD goons had hidden away, never mind other shady organizations.

"Right." She could just hear the grin in his voice even as she bent down to look through her books. "So, you've seen both Star Trek and Star Wars?"

"Come on, I'm not a total beginner in this." Jane stood up again and set her hands on her hips. How dare the kids question her knowledge! "Unlike most people around here, I've actually met Asgardians. Plural."

"Wait. Wait wait wait. Back up a bit." Tommy frowned, pointing an accusatory finger at her. "Do you really mean to tell us that you are this world's foremost alien expert, and you've only met one type of alien, ever?"

"It's a good percentage, considering that we know of three in total," Jane replied, unable to keep the snappy tone out of her voice. "I'm pretty sure nobody outside SHIELD or Avengers can do any better, and even that depends on whether we're counting Loki as Asgardian or Jotun."

"Three. So. Asgardian, Jotun, and what?" Was he actually counting off with his fingers?

"Well, there's the whatever race Loki brought over to take over New York." Jane frowned. "We didn't exactly get introduced, but we're fairly sure they were separate from either the Asgardians or the Jotun."

"Right. So your world's total knowledge of alien races consists of three." Tommy raised his eyebrows. "We've fought against that many in one day."

"We have?" Billy frowned. "I mean, there was the big fight in New York, but that was just two."

"Yeah, we have. You remember when we first met the Runaways? We technically fought them, right? And there's Xavin and Karolina, and then there was the Kree guy when we came to rescue you." Tommy grinned. "Skrull, Kree, Majesdanian. That's three by my math, assuming we're not counting androids and dinosaurs."

"Oh, right." Billy blinked. "I'm not sure I'd count that as a proper fight, considering Xavin pretty much saved us in the end, but I suppose it's pretty close at least."

"Wait, what?" Jane blinked. "You are on first name basis with several aliens?" Of unknown alien races, at that. Or, at least, unknown in their world.

Come to think of it, didn't that mean the kids weren't from their world?

Tommy snorted. "First name basis? Little brother here has slept with one."

"Tommy!" Billy's face blossomed into a flush. "That's not — I haven't —"

"Oh, please. Like I'm going to believe you guys are still waiting for the right moment or whatever." Tommy rolled his eyes. "You've been sneaking into each other's rooms ever since Teddy moved in with your folks; I'm not buying it's all been just cuddling and chaste kisses. Nobody's that patient."

"I'm not discussing this." Billy crossed his arms over his chest.

Teddy. The third boy was called Teddy, right? "Your boyfriend's an alien?"

"Uh." Billy tensed a bit. "That's… don't tell anyone, okay? I'm not exactly confident that'd gain us a lot of fans around here."

Now, she managed a grin. "Please. My sort-of boyfriend is an alien prince." At least she was pretty sure Thor was her boyfriend, or something close enough. He'd certainly never told her otherwise.

"Makes two of you, then." As Billy glared at him, Tommy shrugged. "What? She'd have found out eventually, and frankly I think she's the safest choice you have if we're going to tell anyone."

"I'm pretty sure it should have been Teddy's choice to decide if we're going to tell anyone or not, about any of this."

"Oh, don't worry, I won't tell a soul." She was doing her best not to stare, but it was getting rather difficult. "Do you happen to have an hour? Or two? I have a lot of questions about those aliens in your world."

This was going to be glorious.


	14. Sorcerer Supreme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SHIELD has offered help in the form of a magic expert who might be able to advise Billy with his problem. Whether the visit actually is helpful remains to be seen, but Steve is willing to go along nevertheless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Strange's house is mainly based on his appearance in _The Ultimate Spider-Man_ because, let's face it, that's the closest thing we have to an MCU-compliant Sorcerer Supreme for now.

"So I need a favor." Tony strode into Steve's room without any preamble. Steve would have protested, but knew it to be useless. At least JARVIS wouldn't have let Tony in if he'd been indecent. Probably. JARVIS had a strange sense of humor sometimes.

"Do you, now?" He turned the page on his sketchbook. No need for Tony to see the crude attempt at drawing him from memory. "And am I to assume you need me to do this favor?"

"Yes, well, that would be why I'm asking you and not someone else. Well done figuring that out, Cap."

Steve bit back a snarky response about how there had not yet been any asking done. Tony could be demanding at times, yes, but he rarely admitted he needed someone to do things for him, certainly not anything he would call a favor. "Right. What can I do for you?"

"Oh, I don't need you to do anything for me." Tony shook his head. "No, I need you to do something for Billy."

"Oh?" Well, that was certainly unusual. Steve set his sketchbook and pencils aside entirely. "Is something the matter?"

"Nothing that hasn't been the matter for a while already." Tony shook his head, not waiting for an invitation to sit in the arm chair Steve had acquired for some quiet reading time. Presumably his business would take some time to explain. "That is, his missing magic and how that's keeping them from going home."

"Right." Steve frowned. "Not that I wouldn't love to help, but magic isn't exactly my area of expertise."

"Hey, you actually seem to believe in a deity who isn't just a highly advanced alien from another reality. Seems to me that makes you much closer to it than I am." As Steve frowned and made to protest, Tony lifted his hand. "No, don't start telling me about the difference of religion and magic, I'm not saying it's make-believe or whatever. Okay, so that doesn't mean I've seen evidence for God yet, but I've seen a guy call lightning down from the sky and another strike it out of his fingertips, I'm willing to accept there's more to this world than I can personally accomplish. My point is, you're obviously more accepting of such things than I am."

"I wouldn't say I'm entirely accepting of the idea of magic." No, he wasn't about to start burning witches or whatever, and there was obviously nothing wrong with Billy, but he doubted he was any better than Tony at simply accepting it as a fact of life. Not due to his religion, no, but simply because it hadn't been a part of his world view until just recently. However many changes he had already accepted and adapted to, it was still hard to admit there was something else he had always been wrong about.

"Yeah, well, there's another aspect to this." Tony ran a hand over his hair and sighed. "I'm not sure if you've noticed so far, but I'm not exactly known for my people skills."

Steve's lips twitched. "I never could have guessed." He actually managed to keep his tone mostly deadpan. "I'm not the most popular guy, either, though, so I don't see how that matters here."

"Please. SHIELD sent me to talk to a guy when they wanted to make sure he wouldn't agree to anything their representative suggested. You may not be able to get a date, but you're nice and polite and can smile at just about anyone like you're in a recruitment poster or something. Right now, that's much more important than being able to bullshit people any way you like."

"There's more to life than getting dates." But he supposed the other part was true enough. "So. What is there that could help Billy but requires someone more polite and less skeptical than you are?"

"I talked with Fury about this." Tony sighed. "I mean, obviously I had to explain where all these junior superheroes were coming from, and for some reason he wouldn't accept the theory that they all sprung fully formed from my forehead, so that was one Classical Mythology class right down the drain, there. So, since I had to tell him about the whole world-hopping and malfunctioning magic anyway, while glossing over most of the details of course, I decided to ask him if there was anything they could do to help the matters along. You know, just to make sure our unexpected guests don't have to sit around causing chaos any longer than absolutely necessary."

"Right." Steve nodded slowly. "And was there anything he could do?"

"Fury himself? Hardly. However, after enough persuasion, I did manage to get something out of him at least." Tony took on an almost sly look. "So, it turns out, SHIELD actually has a magical consultant."

"They do?" Steve wished he could have been more surprised, but really, it seemed simply typical of SHIELD to have a plan for every single contingency. "Someone who knows about actual magic?"

"According to Fury, they've made use of his services a few times, and he's actually been useful, so I'd imagine so. They're not in the business of tolerating scammers. From what little he would tell me, the man uses magic himself and is something of an expert. He's strictly non-affiliated, but seems to like the world better when it's not falling apart in teeny tiny pieces, so he does help them on matters concerning the occult when it's necessary."

"So why didn't we see hide nor hair of him when Loki was attacking?" Because for all that Steve had rationalized Loki's tricks as being the result of his advanced alien abilities, it had clearly been magic of some kind. As much as magic could ever be called clear.

"See, I asked the exact same thing, except not quite as politely." Tony's lips twitched. "According to Fury, they tried to reach him at the time, but he wasn't at this plane of reality so they couldn't get anything out of him."

"Right." Which he supposed was theoretically possible, if they were indeed dealing with a magician, but still sounded somewhat absurd. "And Fury thinks he could help Billy?"

"Nothing guaranteed, of course, but apparently, if there's anyone in this world who could tell us what's going on and how to fix it, it's this guy." Tony shook his head. "Fury gave me an address that Billy should visit to ask him about the whole missing magic problem. However, call me paranoid if you want, but I'm not exactly comfortable with sending the kid off by himself. I'd go with him, but frankly I don't think my presence would help the matters, because, you know, people skills. And the tendency to assume anyone claiming to do magic is a charlatan until proved otherwise." His lips twitched again. "Precious few have ever proved otherwise."

"I'd imagine." Steve paused. "So you want me to take Billy?"

"Yeah. If it's a trap or otherwise suspicious, I'm not about to send Bruce, and while I'm sure Clint or Natasha could help, sending one of them could seem too aggressive. I mean, if the guy's dealt with SHIELD before, he could very well know they're assassin spies with superheroic tendencies."

"I'm pretty sure that's not their actual job description." Though he supposed it was close enough. "So you think I'd be the best candidate?"

"Well, obviously. You're inoffensive in a good way, in that you're not going to get the two of you thrown out before five minutes have passed. You'll be able to keep the kid safe from most threats, but since you're kind of a clear leader figure, it's going to seem more like looking out for his interests and less like planning an attack on the good consultant. And Billy trusts you, which is always a plus." Tony tilted his head to the side. "So, how about it? Are you game?"

"Have you even asked Billy about this yet?" Because he might not like the idea of seeing a strange magician recommended by SHIELD.

"No. Figured I'd better get the arrangements ready before getting his hopes up."

Of course. "Very well." Steve sighed. "I suppose you'd like me to convince Billy as well?"

"If you could, that'd be swell." Tony paused. "That was correct usage, right? God, I sounded like an idiot. Never let those words pass my lips again, okay? And don't tell Rhodey, fuck, he'd never let me live it down."

"Oh, never fear." And now, Steve found himself smiling, just a bit. "Your secret is safe with me."

As was the fact that Tony had gone out of his way to help the kids. At least, it would be, until a sufficiently good time arrived to reveal it, allowing Steve to truly demonstrate Tony's claims at lack of feelings to be the lies they were.

Tony wasn't the only one who could be devious.

*

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I appreciate your concern, but I kind of have to." Billy looked at Teddy in the mirror. He wasn't going to wear his costume, they did have to go through the town and avoiding attention might be a good idea, but he did at least want to look presentable, not some little kid. "Obviously I can't figure this out by myself, so if there's any chance I might get some help, I'll take it."

"I know, I just can't help but worry." Teddy sighed. "Not because you can't take care of yourself, but, well. It could be a trap."

"Which is why Cap is coming along. Not that SHIELD probably would try anything anyway, they're kind of supposed to be the good guys and you know the Avengers wouldn't let them get away with anything, but with Steve there they definitely won't."

"Right." Teddy stepped closer, reaching his arms around Billy. "You sure I can't come along?"

Billy gave him a small chuckle. "Thanks, but if you're actually worried this turns out to be some convoluted scheme, having two of us there would probably be worse, especially since I can't just teleport us out of there."

"Do you not trust my abilities to keep you safe?"

"Oh, I'd never doubt them." He gave Teddy a soft smile in the mirror, meeting his eyes in the reflection. "I just like knowing you're nice and safe at home."

"So now it's all about keeping me safe, hmm?" Teddy nuzzled him a bit. "I suppose I should make sure Cap knows what awaits him if you're anything less than perfectly unscathed when you get back."

"Now, no reason to get so suspicious." Billy chuckled. "I'll be fine. The worst that can happen is that I don't learn anything new, and in that case, I'll have only wasted an afternoon. In the best case, I might actually get some information on how to get my magic working again, or even help in getting us back home."

"Yeah, that would be good." Teddy gave him another nuzzle, destroying what little progress Billy had made in getting his hair under control. "I want you to be happy."

"We're all going to be happy and safe in the end." He wouldn't allow anything else. "Until then, though, I'll just have to try and make some advancements every now and then."

"Right." Teddy finally stepped away, letting him get back to work on his unruly hair. "You'll have your magic back before you know it."

"Let's hope." And maybe along with his magic, he'd get some idea of how to react to it.

"Billy?" Damn. Of course Teddy would notice the tone in his voice. "Is something the matter?"

"Oh, nothing." At the inquisitive glance, he squirmed. "It's just, well. I want my magic back, of course. We can't get home without it, and I feel empty. But… at the same time, I'm kind of… relieved."

"Relieved?" Teddy's tone was soft, not accusing him of anything. "Why so?"

"Well, as long as I don't have my magic, I can't do anything bad with it, right?" Billy bit his lip. "I can't rewrite the world or turn anyone comatose or anything like that as long as my magic isn't working. So, even though I do want it back… as long as it's missing, as well try not to worry."

"Oh, Billy." Teddy shook his head. "You shouldn't think about things like that."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm just… trying to see the bright side, I guess." Because if he'd had to deal with the fear of doing something terrible on top of feeling guilty about bringing everyone here, he wasn't sure he could have had enough confidence to even keep trying.

"You're not a bad guy, Billy," Teddy said, his voice quiet. "And no matter what anyone else may have said or thought, there isn't a single person in this world who thinks you are." He paused. "Well, except for Doom, maybe, and nobody gives a shit about what he thinks."

"Right." Only Teddy could make him smile no matter what. "Screw Doom and his opinions."

"Only metaphorically, though. He's already romanced too many Maximoffs as it is."

"You're lucky I love you, or I'd consider turning you into an actual frog for that." Nevertheless, he turned around and drew Teddy close for a kiss, his still messy hair be damned.

He'd go see this magic expert, hear what they had to say, and then come back to Teddy no matter what the result. That, and only that, was what mattered right now.

As long as he kept thinking that, he would be just fine.

*

"I'm starting to think this is the wrong address." Steve stared at the boarded-up front of a storage building. This was the address SHIELD had given them, he'd checked it twice both with his cell phone and an actual, physical map. Whoever it was they were here to meet, they evidently did not need doors. Or, conversely, were not open for visitors, and hadn't been for quite a while, judging by the state of the barricades.

It made him uncomfortable in a way he wasn't sure he could describe. The neighborhood was close to abandoned, only a few scarce people on the streets, giving suspicious looks at them as they passed. Though then, given that they were standing in front of a building in even worse repair than the rest of the area, they probably looked like they were planning a robbery. Or perhaps it was the building the passers-by were looking at, not them. He couldn't imagine he was the only one feeling less than comfortable about being near it.

"No, this is it." Billy was looking at the dilapidated facade with a strange sort of intensity in his eyes. "There's no doubt about it."

"Oh?" Steve raised his eyebrows. "Is your magic telling you something?"

"Well, yes and no." Billy gave him a lopsided smile. "You could probably say illusions are something of my field." He walked closer to the building. "Shall we?"

"Shall we what?" Steve frowned, but walked after him. "There isn't even an —" He didn't have time to finish his sentence before the image in front of him faded away, instead revealing a two-story house with an eerie glow peeking out from its windows. Two gargoyles guarded a staircase up to a foreboding double door. "Was that there before?"

"Sure, if you know how to look." Billy started walking up the stairs. Steve could have worn there was the faintest hint of a blue glow to his outline. "Also, I'm pretty sure I know who lives here."

"And how do you know that?" Fury hadn't even told Steve that much, only given him an address to go to.

"Let's just say there's a familiar feel to this." The doors flew open before Billy could get to them, waiting silently for them to enter. "That, and if the magic users of my dimension are any indication, there is really only one person SHIELD would consult on difficult magical cases."

"Right." Steve still wasn't sure how he felt about all this magic. There was a small voice in the back of his mind that reminded him all sorcery was supposed to be evil, but then the same voice had spent years telling him he was going to Hell for seeing Bucky kissing a girl and having to admit it wasn't always Bucky he wanted to replace in that picture. There were forces in the world beyond his understanding, that was certain; it seemed strange to declare all of them evil beyond redemption just because they could feasibly be used wrong. "You know them, then?"

"We've met a couple of times." Billy had been somewhat uneasy earlier, but seemed to be gaining confidence as he now strode through the open doors into the dimly lit hallway behind them. "From what I've heard, he was there when Tommy and I were first born."

"I see." He was not going to ask for any clarifications.

The doors closed behind him as he followed Billy, a fact that probably should have worried him more than it did. As they walked inside the foreboding feeling faded away, leaving behind mere curiosity and a slight wariness. The hallway seemed to extend much farther than could be reasonable, old wood panels lining the bottom of red-tinted walls, strange artifacts resting on pedestals at regular intervals. Some of them seemed almost mundane, while others were clearly fantastical in the worst sense. Steve glanced at an armor that had clearly been designed for something other than a human. He could have sworn it was looking back at him.

"Almost there." He looked forward, past Billy, to see the hallway opening into a spacious sitting room. Large windows cast a soft light into the otherwise dark room, revealing hints of furniture. The light seemed far too dim for the time of the day, but then, Steve also could have sworn they had already walked further than the block could possibly extend.

"I hope our host is home, then." Though if he wasn't, why would the doors have opened for them?

"Oh, he is." Billy drew a deep, slow breath, standing up a bit straighter. "Are you not, Sorcerer Supreme?"

"This is an unusual treat." A man emerged from the shadows, wearing a shirt and a vest of somewhat unusual design, his black hair combed back and his goatee even more impeccably groomed than Tony's. "Not to say that I am entirely unknown, but I do make a point of at least being acquaintanced with those who can name me so easily."

"Yes, well, where I come from, the title's been somewhat contested." Billy inclined his head minutely, though Steve couldn't tell if it was in greeting or in thought. "I was a candidate for a while, but thankfully that didn't work out."

"Considering I have no knowledge of such things, I have to admit I am curious to know more about where you come from." The man's eyes flickered towards Steve. "As well as why you are here now."

"We were given this address by SHIELD." Steve figured this was about time he spoke up. "Billy here requires some advice on a magical matter."

"And they sent you with him, Captain Rogers? Though I suppose you are still better than your skeptic friend." The man made a gesture with his hand, and the lights in the large room turned on, while the hallway behind them fell into darkness. Steve decided to question neither the mechanics of the trick nor how the man knew his name. "Very well. Come forward, and we shall speak."

"This," Billy said as they followed the sorcerer to a sitting area, "is Doctor Strange. Unless things are very different from what I know, he is the most powerful magician in the world."

"I would loathe to prove you wrong, in that case." Doctor Strange motioned for them to sit on an antique couch, taking a seat opposite to them, his eyes in Billy. "You are not from this world."

"Not quite, no." Billy picked at the sleeve of his shirt, now, his earlier confidence seeping out of him as he was reminded of his problem. "Nor am I alone here."

"I see." Strange furrowed his brow. "And there is a problem in which I can assist?"

"I certainly hope so." Billy worried his lip briefly. "We… we think my magic brought us here, from our own world. However, ever since we came here, I've barely been able to do anything. At first it felt like I didn't have magic at all, and even though I've been training hard, I can only do some small, basic things."

"Indeed." Strange steepled his hands under his chin. "What spell did you use to bring you here?"

Billy blinked. "Spell?"

"Yes. Traversing the borders of dimensions is no trivial matter, as you must know. What spell did you utilize? What incantations, what rituals? While I think I already know the core of your problem, examining the details would make it easier to suggest some immediate remedy."

"Uh. There… was no spell?" Billy scratches the back of his head, looking almost sheepish. "I just wanted us to go home."

Strange's eyebrows rose now, almost imperceptibly but still. "And that was enough to call forth your magic?"

"It's, um, kind of how I use my magic. I think about what I want to happen, and then I wish really, really hard, usually by chanting the wish until it comes true."

There was a moment of silence that stretched on much longer than Steve could have ever described as comfortable. He was almost certain they had all ceased breathing altogether. Finally, though, Strange sighed, a deep sound of exasperation. "Where exactly did you receive your formal instruction?"

"Nowhere?" Billy was fiddling with his sleeve again. "I kind of had to figure it out by myself. Well, my boyfriend helped. We got the idea of repeating the wish to myself from one of his mother's self-help books."

Strange was quiet for another moment. "Well. There is a lot I could say about that, but it seems pointless to correct your bad habits when you are eventually going to return. My counterpart will have to handle the matter as he sees fit, which I do hope is sooner rather than later. An undisciplined magician is even worse than an untrained one; at least one who has yet to grasp his powers does not have their full potential for destruction in case of a mishap."

"Yeah, well, I'm yet to unmake the fabric of reality or anything permanent like that." Billy was practically squirming. Steve couldn't exactly blame him. "And I can't get out of your hair before I get my magic back."

"I suppose not." Strange shook his head minutely. "The matter of your magic is most likely a simple one. The flow of magic in this dimension is ever so slightly different from the powers of your own reality. It is merely taking you a moment to resynchronize your inner powers with those outside. While using your magic to what extent you can will speed up the process, I'm afraid the only cure I can offer is time."

"It's going to take ages, then." Billy's voice was quiet. "It's been so long already, and I can barely do the simplest things."

"It's all the advice I can offer at present. If you had used some formal incantation or rite to bring you here, I might have been able to reverse it and send you back home, but if the nature of your magic is as you said, there is very little I can do. To even attempt to return you to your own dimension I would first have to find it, and with such chaotic magic, there is very little for me to go on."

"Yes, well, chaos magic pretty much runs in the family." Again, he bit his lip. "Isn't there anything you can do?"

"I'm afraid the situation leaves me with very few options. Forcing your magic to realign itself would do more harm than good, and might leave you unable to readjust again once you returned home. If I can locate your point of origin, I may be able to offer some more help, but I cannot guarantee that it will succeed. If your power is, indeed, a form of harnessed chaos magic, there is no telling how far you are from home."

"What does that even mean?" Immediately there were two pairs of eyes on him, but Steve refused to feel uneasy. "Are some dimensions farther apart than others?"

"Certainly. Some worlds are a mere magical step away, while others are separated by vast distances of powers beyond comprehension. Though clearly they are not unattainable, it is quite different to follow the tracks of a planned, precise ritual than the tangled, wandering path of an unplanned bout of chaos magic."

"Right." Billy paused. "Uh. I'm not sure if it helps, but I have sometimes looked into other dimensions, before. I've never traveled between them, never even tried to, just… watched. To see how things are different."

"But of course you have." A tired tone teased the edges of Strange's voice. "And what, pray tell, was your incantation at such times? 'There's nothing on TV', or something of equal importance?"

"You know, I get the feeling I'm being mocked. Am I being mocked? Yeah, I'm definitely being mocked." A part of Steve almost wanted to chastise him for his lack of respect, but it was almost a relief to see this side of Billy instead of the awkward uneasiness again.

"No mockery, young sorcerer. I merely marvel at the fact that you do not even realize what a tremendous effort that would be for many a traditionally trained magician, certainly not something to be undertaken on a lark."

"So my magic is capable of doing freaky things likely to make everyone see me as a potential menace, yet I still haven't mastered the art of perfect magical pancakes. That's just typical." Despite the snarky answer, Steve's ears picked up another hint of uncertainty.

He couldn't help but wonder what the boy had gone through because of people who had considered him a threat.

"That would certainly line up with my usual experiences with chaos magic, yes." Strange leaned back, relaxing almost imperceptibly. "Have no fear, young Billy. As long as you do not actually threaten the souls of this dimension, I have no grudge against you. I will even do what I can to aid you in your hopeful return." He paused. "Even if you did once quote a reality TV show in lieu of an actual spell."

Billy still didn't relax entirely, but his lips did twitch ever so slightly.

Steve supposed it was a start.


	15. Shocking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve comes to a somewhat unsettling realization about his feelings toward Tony and Pepper. Tony, in the meantime, finds out something shocking -- something which just might drive Billy away.

Tony was on TV.

This was, Steve had come to understand, not an entirely uncommon occurrence. It happened less often than back when he had still been the CEO of Stark Industries, but he still made the occasional appearance when the situation called for it. As this was Tony, it seemed the situation called for it whenever they needed a witty comment with a pretty face on anything even remotely related to heroics or terrorism, and Tony obliged when he could make the time. He did enjoy attention, after all.

This time, though, the appearance had been requested — commanded, as Tony had grumbled — by Nick Fury himself. The media was still curious about the kids, and as their social media appearances and the PR department had apparently not been enough, a statement by one of the best known Avengers had been in order.

Clint had wondered whether Steve minded he wasn't the one picked to represent them, to which Steve's response had been a resounding no. He had done his fair share of publicity work, yes, and was pretty good at it as long as he had a script to run off of, but it had never been his favorite thing to do. Tony, on the other hand, seemed to get some satisfaction from getting others to cling to his words, enjoying the feeling of being the smartest person in the room. Besides, from what Steve had learned since waking up, the media of today was even more vicious than the journalists of his own day. Just because he had been a good little poster boy back during the war didn't necessarily mean he'd stand the slightest chance against the modern media.

So, it was Tony on TV instead of him, with more or less the entire team gathered to watch it on the big screen in the living room. Even Pepper was there, having taken time off just to watch the program live, one leg elegantly draped over the other as she leaned back in an armchair. Bruce sat in another chair, the teens having taken over one of the couches with Steve, Natasha, and Clint in the other one. Jane had declined their offer to join them, mumbling something about new research that Steve hadn't quite caught. He trusted JARVIS would keep a record for her to watch later if she wished to, anyway.

"So, lately everyone has been quite at a buzz about the most recent additions to our lineup of New York superheroes," the host was saying, smiling at Tony in a manner Steve found very annoying. "You have been known as Iron Man for years now. What can you tell us about the new faces?"

"Not much you wouldn't find out looking them up online, I'm afraid." Tony gave a small chuckle. "They're some very competent young people who got called in as additional back-up when there were so many robotic menaces in Manhattan, we figured we could spare some."

"So they are not a permanent part of the team, then?" As though he didn't know. "There have been some mentions in the public about a probationary status, as I recall." So why ask, then?

"Well, they aren't actual Avengers," Tony replied with an easy tone. "Not yet, anyway. Some of them haven't even turned 18 yet, so it'd be pretty irresponsible of us to take them in on a permanent basis." He flashed a bright grin. "And regardless of any rumors, no, it's not because I feel threatened by younger and more attractive people hanging around. I'm quite confident in the advantage I gain through experience and charm."

"And this was our best choice for a public face?" Clint frowned at the screen, though Steve could tell he was fighting a smirk. "At this rate everyone'll think we're keeping the kid around for the sole purpose of barely-legal orgies or something."

"So, they are trainee Avengers of a sort?" the host asked. "How exactly does one apply for such a position? It seems quite clear from the various witness reports we have gathered that they aren't exactly your average teenagers."

"Oh, we found them quite by chance." Tony gave one of his perfect charming smiles, tilting his head ever so slightly. "It seems they met through a mutual friend who had taken note of their special abilities. As to how this little crew then came to our attention, well, it just happens that the lovely Kate is the daughter of an acquaintance of mine. They just showed up one day, quite out of the blue."

"I love how he's not even lying," Tommy chuckled, reaching an arm around Kate's shoulders. "He does even know your dad. Well, this world's version of him."

"Indeed." Kate's lips twitched. "And we did indeed show up out of the blue."

"So that's all it takes? Good connections and the element of surprise?"

"I would say it helps they are all rather pretty, but alas, I am a very much taken man these days." Tony gave a great sigh, which drew a smile to Pepper's face. She looked even more beautiful when she smiled, Steve noted. "The important thing here is, they want to make a difference. In that, they're no different from great many other young people out there. Sure, they got the connections and the abilities to work with the Avengers, but I'm sure that even if they'd had neither of those, they would have found a way to change the world for the better." He took on a soft expression Steve had rarely seen on him, even if it was almost immediately covered up. The pause was long enough, however, that he knew it had been a very calculated move for the benefit of the cameras. "They're good kids."

"Is it bad I'm not sure which one is more offensive, him calling us kids or having Tony Stark announce we're not bad guys?" Tommy ran a hand over his hair.

"Oh, come on. You know he doesn't mean it in a bad way." Billy was lying half across Teddy's lap, a look of amusement on his face, possibly at his brother's grumbles. "I shouldn't find it this amusing that he's obviously trying to be a good influence or something."

"Well, he's got plenty of bad influencing to make up for." Pepper seemed just as amused, though. "Besides, I drilled him beforehand on what things he's allowed to say and what he's not. This wasn't exactly on my list of suggestions, but it's not going against any no-nos, either."

Teddy's eyebrows rose high. "Do I dare ask what you would forbid?"

"Any references to barely-legal orgies, among other things." Pepper seemed perfectly calm at what Steve hoped was a joke. "Also, I made sure he realizes it's incredibly bad form to out someone without their express permission, so I believe your relationship will remain on the level of fansite speculation, still."

"Good." Teddy ran a hand through Billy's hair. "If we're going to come out in this world, too, we're going to do it ourselves."

"Assuming anyone believed us." Billy snorted. "I'm pretty sure Tommy's already spread rumors about us dating just about everyone short of a sentient swarm of bees."

Natasha hushed them then as Tony was talking again, which brought them all to silence rather efficiently. It was good to know they all had some level of self-preservation instincts, whatever else Tommy might have claimed.

"What is it like to be a superhero?" Tony repeated the host's question. "Well, I wouldn't really know. I imagine it's different for everyone, so all I can really tell you is what it's like to be Iron Man." He paused, taking on a contemplative look. "It's got its good sides and bad sides, really. I mean, there's the fame and admiration and everything, that's pretty nice, and I suppose I'm contractually obligated to tell you that doing good is its own reward."

"Contractually nothing," Clint snorted. "Pretty sure Cap beat that into his head."

"I wouldn't beat him," Steve murmured, trying not to sound too indignant as he focused on Tony. "Not when he's outside his suit, anyway."

"Then there's the bad things, of course. Like bad guys targeting my loved ones, few as they are, or the injuries. I really don't like the injuries, bruises really aren't my color. And then there are always various upstanding citizens deciding to repay us for saving their lives by suing us for collateral damage, which, by the way, was caused by the bad guys. Which is basically the same as asking the cops to pay for the window the burglar broke, which is pretty backwards if you ask me, but then, the sensibility of that claim is for the courts to decide, not me. This is the land of justice and well-paid lawyers, after all."

"Now, that?" Pepper sighed. "That's something I didn't even think to forbid. Stupid of me, I know."

"But in the end, there's one thing that does make it all worth it," Tony added, blissfully unaware of Pepper's disapproval. "Aside from all the saved kittens and babies returned to their parents, of course." This time, the grin was not calculated or affected in the slightest; this was Tony Stark at his most genuine, his happiest. "That's the moment I get back home and the most beautiful and brilliant person in the world tells me that I'm an idiot for putting myself in such danger and then draws me close to make sure I'm still in one piece."

Tony smiled at the camera, a genuine, warm smile full of affection, and Pepper smiled back at the screen. All of a sudden Steve realized he wanted to be the one receiving those smiles. Not just one or the other, but both of them. He wanted nothing as much as to have both Tony and Pepper look at him like that, like he was someone dear and precious, someone to be kept in their hearts despite occasional disagreements.

God, he was lost.

*

Tony might have said the air felt like the calm before the storm, had he not known that was nonsense.

For one thing, it was never actually calm in the Tower. Even setting aside robotic armies and alien invasions, the simple day-to-day life of New York outside the building was quite enough to offer its own addition to the soundscape. That, of course, was still secondary to the inhabitants of his beloved Tower. With almost a dozen people wandering about the private part of the building, something was always going on, even if it wasn't always right in front of him. If nobody was beating someone else up in the gym or watching something on the TV with the volume up far too high, there was sure to be a shouting match starting up somewhere or something getting broken, oh there you are Tony, would you mind taking a look at this? So, no, there was never a moment of peace, not if he looked deep enough.

Not that he minded seeing Steve yelling at some idiot on the TV. It was always refreshing to see that he was capable of being angry at someone who wasn't either Tony or actively trying to kill anyone.

So, there was no calmness to speak of, but he could still swear there was a storm brewing somewhere. A mere suspicion was hardly proof, of course, but then he had never needed much proof to be paranoid, nor had he survived this long without learning to trust his gut. There was an itch in the back of his mind that told him today wouldn't end without something bad happening, bad enough to probably ruin his entire day.

Because of this feeling, Tony was running on high alert, wandering about his workshop with little actual enthusiasm, going through the motions of checking every piece of his armor and making sure everything was functioning perfectly. If he was very unlucky, his bad little feeling would turn into another call for Avengers, and if that happened, there could be nothing whatsoever wrong with his armor, for his sake and others'. Too many people were counting on his support for him to fail.

It was an odd feeling, wasn't it, knowing people had faith in him, not just his genius or his inventions. Him, Tony Stark, as a person. Clearly he had a very bad taste in friends, given how deluded they all were.

He had not instructed JARVIS to keep track of everyone, though that was mainly because he knew he could count on JARVIS to tell him anything alarming happened. The great thing about his AI was, it actually knew what counted as alarming, such as super villain attacks or Fury calling him, and what didn't, such as regular training accidents — the actual kind, not just bad excuses. Even so, he just couldn't focus on anything right now. For the most part he just wished the bad thing would just happen already. He had never been a fan of waiting, and would much rather have just had the whole thing over with, thanks.

Of course, as the deal with such things often was, he was still not entirely prepared for the news when it came, quite out of the blue.

"Sir?" JARVIS's voice cut through his thoughts. "I trust you remember the request Master Billy made during the early part of their visit?"

"The name to look for? Yeah, I remember." Tony frowned. "I thought you said his traces disappeared soon after the camp. What of it?" If JARVIS had gotten another hit…

"I have just run into the same name in another database. I am currently looking into the connection, but so far it would appear the two are related."

"Oh? And what database is that?" It couldn't be anything good, if JARVIS was stalling.

"The SHIELD database on international criminals, sir." Well. He hated being right, sometimes. "It appears Max Eisenhardt is the earliest recorded civilian name of the superpowered terrorist known as Magneto."

"Magneto?" He frowned. "That seems like a name I should know, but I don't." It certainly didn't sound like the kind of guy he'd run into on the street.

"It's no wonder that you do not, Sir. His last known activities were roughly three decades ago. SHIELD records indicate him as an international terrorist, but his current status is unknown, and he is presumed dead after a battle that was witnessed by SHIELD agents."

"So their grandpa turned evil and got killed." Shit. How the hell was he going to explain that to the kids?

"I'm afraid there is more to the story, Sir." Because obviously he hadn't gotten enough bad news yet. "Apparently, at the time of his presumed defeat, SHIELD had knowledge of several more individuals of superhuman capabilities. Two of them were, at the time, working for SHIELD with the precise goal of subduing Magneto."

Well. Fury had said he wasn't the only superhero out there. "Go on." Because there had to be more detail to this.

"The documentation I have been able to access so far is less than complete about the nature of their abilities. However, according to the records, one of them had a talent best described as probability manipulation." And another pause, just as ominous. "The other agent's abilities revolved around his superhuman speed… and he was known by the code name of Quicksilver."

Shit. Shit shit shit. "And… is there any more information on those two?"

"Apparently their current status is deeply classified. It will take another while before I am able to access it. However, for the moment, I did manage to locate a photograph from the mission itself, buried deep within a situation report." An image flashed on the closest screen in place of the blueprints of his gauntlets, and Tony swallowed.

A woman with dark, curly hair, a red cape, and features far too familiar to ignore lay motionless on the ground in the middle of a pile of rubble. However, even the obvious familiarity of her appearance wasn't what drew Tony's attention right now.

That honor would have gone to the large piece of steel rebar that pinned her to the ground like a pin on a broken butterfly.

*

It was, Billy decided, a good feeling to be training properly again.

This wasn't one of Nate's simulations, of course, but it was still training with his team, sparring and going over their basic tactics, honing his flying skills back to his old finesse. Perhaps they wouldn't get the chance to do any more heroics before Strange found a way for them to get home, but just in case something happened before then, they would be ready.

He wasn't going to think about what they would do about that once they did get home. It wasn't time for such worries now, not as long as they were still stuck here with no way back. Getting worked up about that would do him no good as long as the matter wasn't relevant in any way.

They hadn't caused any harm around here, except perhaps some stress for various SHIELD agents, and that was something he was, frankly, quite fine with. In this world, they were heroes, admired rather than feared.

He didn't want to give up this feeling, inevitable though the change was.

Now, though, it was time for a nice, long break, though the others were still continuing; it wasn't his fault he had to beg out first with the others still in the gym, he had the least experience with physical fighting. He needed a shower, and then maybe a nap, and then he would have time enough to cuddle with Teddy before dinner, or maybe go out somewhere. It was still relatively new, being able to explore the city outside the Tower, and the way they got recognized if they didn't make any attempt at disguising themselves was somewhat unsettling, but Billy was quite sure he could get used to it. Oh, how easily he could get used to it.

He was walking down the corridor on his way to the elevator as he paused, hearing movement. It was in one of the side rooms occupying what little space was left after the gym and locker rooms on the floor, the one Steve had claimed as a miniature studio after one time too many of Tony marching right into his bedroom while he was trying to draw.

Judging by what Billy heard next, he hadn't entirely dodged the bullet.

"I need your help." That was Tony's voice, urgent and almost frantic, and Billy froze. Something really bad had to be going on if Tony Stark of all people sounded like that. Sure, he got worked up over the strangest things sometimes, but this wasn't the tone he took when Dummy got mad at him or he found out deviled eggs were not, in fact, evil by nature. "Seriously, Steve. You have to help me, you're the one who knows how to deal with this kind of thing."

"Tony, calm down." And there was Cap, all calm and gentle, a steady rock in the storm of whatever crisis Tony was facing now. "What is it?"

"I think I found out what happened to the kids' grandfather." If Billy had frozen before, that certainly made sure he wasn't going anywhere. "The twins' grandfather, that is, in this world. And I need your help to figure out how we can tell them this."

"Oh?" He could practically hear the concerned frown in Steve's voice. "I thought JARVIS said all traces disappeared after the camp?"

"That's what I thought, too. And, well, the regular traces did. I thought he just died or something, but it seems like he just took on another name." Tony paused. "There are SHIELD files about a super-powered terrorist who has been linked to the name of Max Eisenhardt."

Steve bit out a soft curse, echoing the sick feeling spreading at the pit of Billy's stomach. "That's…"

"That's not all." Of course it wasn't all of it. Bad news never came alone. "Apparently he went by the name of Magneto, which, if you haven't heard of it, don't worry. He never truly got big scale, so his name isn't known to the general public. I hadn't ever encountered him, and I used to work in a very relevant field."

"So what happened, then?" Steve voiced the question in Billy's head. "Did he…"

"Die? I don't know. Nobody knows. All the SHIELD records say is that he disappeared after a fight against two SHIELD agents and hasn't been heard of for decades. So, it seems the reason the twins don't exist here is because their family line was cut short long before they came into the picture."

Unable to listen any further, Billy turned to go, trying to keep his steps as quiet as possible so as not to alert them to his presence. It was obvious Tony was already worried about how he was going to tell them the bad news; hurrying up that discussion wouldn't help either of them.

Magneto was gone. Dead or defeated, it didn't matter; Magneto wasn't here anymore, and when he had been around, he had been evil. Not that that was out of line with their reality, exactly, but at least back home he had made the effort to turn things around in the end. Here, he apparently hadn't even had a chance.

Here, he was insignificant enough that Tony had never even heard of him before.

It did explain why they had never come into being in this world, Billy supposed. True, it didn't close out the possibility of his children still existing, but without a reason to atone and a team to join, Wanda would have never met Vision, in the somewhat unlikely case he existed, either. And without her marriage Wanda likely never even thought of having children.

Without her marriage and her children and her loss, Wanda never broke the world and earned the hatred and suspicion of everyone else in the super community. Which also meant that Billy was safe from such doubts and fears as well, just as he had hoped he could be.

Wasn't that ever so convenient for him.

This was it. This was House of Magnus all over again, or perhaps Day of M instead. In his fear and desire for a normal life, he had inadvertently changed everything, just like his mother had done in her grief. Except instead of making mutants the rulers or robbing them of their powers, he had instead created a world where they never raised to notoriety in the first place.

He had created a world without heroes, without mutants, one where Cassie would not die and Nate would not turn evil and nobody would have to fear the Skrull, where extraordinary people were still a new concept, a surprise, a change from everything people had been familiar with. Without the old heroes, there were few villains to match. Without heroes, nobody would expect Billy Kaplan, an ordinary boy, to do anything except live his life.

Except without heroes, there was no Billy Kaplan.

Billy felt sick to his stomach, his legs almost failing him all of a sudden. Grasping for the wall, he managed to keep himself upright, trying to gather himself. It couldn't be true. Or could it? He'd certainly never been so exhausted after using his magic before. Was that because he hadn't used it much in a while, or simply because he had never done anything even nearly as enormous?

There were voices approaching, footsteps echoing right behind the corner. Only a moment, and they would see him, probably question him about acting weird. He needed to get away, no matter where, he needed to get away before they reached him or he broke down or both.

His hand on the wall fell down as the world faded into a brilliant, electric blue before his eyes.


	16. Worst Case Scenario

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doctor Strange has news that aren't exactly ideal, and can only be made worse by the fact Billy is missing. However, one does not simply rush into Latveria.

Whoever Kate had expected to show up at the gym door to interrupt their sparring, Doctor Strange had not been it. Yet here he was, all flair and a flashy cape, and it really wasn't her fault that all she could think of was an older Billy.

She set down the staff she had been beating Tommy with, because they had a loving relationship like that, and pushed a lock of hair out of her face. "Doctor Strange?"

"And more people who know me better than I them. How fascinating." Strange glanced around, at the two of them and the approaching Teddy who had been testing out Tony's latest attempt at a super-proof punching bag. "Where is young William?"

"Billy headed for our room a while ago," Teddy replied. "If you want to talk with him, you can go there or JARVIS can ask him here instead."

"No, not quite yet." He sighed. "It may well be for the best that you hear before him what I have to say. I have the feeling that when he hears my news, he will need the support of those closest to him." 

"That really doesn't sound good." Teddy frowned, the concern obvious on his face. "What's wrong? It's — it's not something about his magic, is it?" It was an understandable worry. After all, his magic had still not returned to normal.

"Nothing like that, no. Far as I could ascertain, the only matter with his magic is that he is not properly synchronized with the powers of this world, so to speak. The longer he spends here, the easier it should become for him, until the powers are correctly aligned again."

"Well, that's a relief. He's been moping like someone canceled his birthday." Tommy leaned against the wall. "So, mister magical, what exactly is this grave piece of news you're bringing?"

"It concerns the world of your origin." Well, that certainly got all of their attention. "After the visit from your friends, I turned my attention to finding the reality that is your home. After all, the easiest remedy of the situation would be for you to return, but as most magic is not quite as straightforward as the strange form he utilizes, I cannot help you on that journey until I manage to determine the exact destination."

"So, what is the problem, them?" Kate didn't like the sound of this. "Could you not find it?"

Strange shook his head. "Finding the world you arrived from was no hardship," he said, his tone serious. "However, confirming that I was indeed viewing the correct one was not as simple a matter."

"What do you mean?" Tommy frowned. "How could you find it but not know which one it was?"

"There are many worlds out there," Strange replied. "Many in which the Young Avengers exist, and yet many others where they do not. I found worlds where you never took on the burdens of heroes, and worlds where you succeeded in doing so, and worlds where you failed. I found worlds where one or more of you never came to be, or never met the others. And, yes, I found worlds where there was no trace of any of you."

"So what is the problem, then?" Kate asked. "I mean, couldn't you track the pattern of Billy's magic or something back to the source?"

"Oh, I did indeed do that." The sorcerer shook his head. "However, when I came across the world of your origin, it was difficult for me to believe I had indeed reached my target."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Tommy's frown deepened. "Shit. Don't tell me that trip somehow messed up the whole world back there." Because if that were the case, Billy would never forgive himself.

"Nothing quite that drastic, young Speed." Strange sighed, and it sounded like the weight of centuries was bringing him down all at once. "There were many worlds where you were, and many where you weren't… yet try as I might, I could not find a single one where you had been, and suddenly were not."

Kate felt her face drain of blood. "You can't possibly mean…"

"Alas, after deep study of the magic that brought you here, I have arrived at the only possible conclusion." Strange eyed them all with dark eyes. "You were not brought here, not by accident or foul intent. You were not brought from anywhere, because for that to happen, you would have had to leave." He paused, but even before he finished Kate knew with a cold certainty what was to come. "You are, in essence, perfect copies of the you that were left behind."

Perfect copies. Extraneous. Even if they somehow made their way back home, there would be no space for them, because they were already there.

There was no home left for them.

"JARVIS?" Kate said, proud of herself that her voice didn't shake. "JARVIS, could you ask Billy to come here?"

"My apologies, Miss," the synthetic voice replied, and her heart froze. "I'm afraid Master William is nowhere in the Tower."

"Well, well." Tony appeared at the doorway, a frown on his face. "Sounds like we have more than one problem, then."

Kate didn't even bother to ask what he had thought was the first one. Instead, she sighed. "You have no idea."

*

"So Billy is missing from the Tower," Tony concluded. "And the foremost authority on magic in this reality can't find any sign of the world you've come from."

"If what JARVIS said about him blinking out in a flash is true, he's probably finally managed to get his teleportation working again." Teddy had his arms crossed over his chest, looking a bit bigger than usual. Tony presumed this would have been a somewhat distressing sense of circumstances.

"So it would appear, indeed." Strange frowned. "Furthermore, this information brings about another problem."

"Oh?" That really didn't sound good. "And what is that problem?"

"Until this revelation, I had been working under the assumption that he had simply brought them over from their world." As though there was anything simple about that. "Interdimensional travel, in and of itself, is certainly not outside the grasp of a strong mage, and despite his appallingly simple methods he certainly qualifies as such. However, creation of new life through magic is another matter altogether." He waved his hand towards the remaining kids. "They all have hearts, life, and soul. So do, from my observations, the ones they left behind. It seems highly unusual to me that something like this could have happened through such unrefined methods, certainly not by accident."

"So what you're saying is that Billy couldn't have done this on his own?"

"I would not be surprised if there were some outside force at work as well." Strange paused, turning a sharp gaze at the teens. "Unless, of course, you can tell me of something similar happening in your past?"

"Uh. Does retroactive reincarnation count?"

Strange raised his eyebrows at Tommy. "I do fear you will have to clarify that statement."

"See, thing is, Billy and I were never adopted out. Not quite." Tommy looked more serious than ever before. "And I wasn't joking when I said our father was an android. It… I don't know the details, never was much of a geek for that stuff, but from what Billy told me, our mother, Scarlet Witch, wanted children no matter what. But since she had, in fact, married an android, the usual way wasn't exactly working."

"They say she used the power of an entire village of witches," Teddy added, his tone low. "And somehow, to everyone's surprise, she became pregnant with twins. Despite the impossibility, she gave birth to two healthy baby boys, Thomas and William."

"Except even her magic couldn't create souls, no matter how she tried." Tommy's hand crept towards Kate's. "Turns out she had unintentionally stolen two shards from the soul of a guy named Mephisto." That caused Strange to draw a sharp breath, yet Tommy continued, a grim look on his face. "When Mephisto gathered himself, the twins? Went poof. Scarlet Witch snapped, killed half her team including robo hubby, and then turned the whole world into an illusion where she'd never had magic and nobody bothered her while she raised her kids with no husband to mourn."

"Except you exist." Tony hated to point out the obvious, but someone had to do it. "How did that come about, then?"

"Well, the illusion was broken, of course, because that kind of thing always is. Then she used her magic one more time to change the world — except this time, she got rid of the mutants." Tommy paused. "As far as we can tell, when she changed things that last time, she turned the world into one where Billy and I had always existed. We didn't just poof up from nothing; hell, Billy actually met her once before everything went to Hell. Somehow, even though before she hadn't been able to create two babies without the help of a whole coven, when she snapped, she changed the world into one where somewhere, in the past, two babies had already been born to two different families."

"And nobody knew about any of that until we went to bust Tommy out to help us save Teddy and he was Billy's mirror image," Kate finished. "So, yeah. Creating new people is hard, but not unprecedented."

"I see." Strange nodded thoughtfully. "It is easier to recreate than it is to create. Furthermore, what he did only made you appear here, without roots or background, instead of changing the world into one where you belonged. If what you say about your mother's abilities is true, it would certainly be possible for him to achieve that lesser task. Especially if he was created through similar magic, himself."

"His powers have always worked better under distress." Teddy looked away. "Besides, he'd used hardly any magic for ages before we got attacked. So, it was overload combined with stress."

"Most likely, yes. Therefore, when he requested his magic to take you home, the ambiguous method not only did so, but also produced another incarnation of your party in a world where none of you had a place before."

"And dumped them in my Tower." Which he supposed could be seen as cute or something, the fact that Billy's magic had found the Tower to be a close enough substitute for "home". "So, what I take is, the kids actually belong here?"

"As much as anyone belongs in any one world, yes. They were created for this world, and though their memories and pasts remain those of others, they are undoubtedly inhabitants of this realm."

"Yeah, well, all this is very interesting and all," Tommy snapped. Big surprise that he was the one who lost his patience first. "However, all this isn't helping us get Billy back."

"Couldn't you find out where he went?" Kate asked, looking at the sorcerer. "I mean, if he did teleport out of here?"

"I can certainly try, but I'm afraid it won't be easy." Strange frowned. "His magic use is chaotic at best, and he likely didn't have a particular destination in mind. It will take a while for me to untangle the tendrils of his magic to find out where he ended up at."

"Hey. If he hopped without a destination, does that mean he's going to appear at a totally random location, or can we narrow it down?" Tommy had an oddly focused look on his face.

"Well, changes are it will be somewhere he has been before," Strange replied. "Likely locations of importance, especially those linked with strong emotions. However, even so, it will take time to narrow it down."

"Maybe for you." Tommy grinned, a look that didn't have much humor in it, and was gone.

"Right." Tony frowned. "Is he actually planning to check all the most likely locations just like that?"

"This is Tommy. I'd be surprised if he wasn't." Kate sighed and shook her head. "He's not going to be back before he's either found something or checked everywhere he could think of from our world. When Tommy thinks he should be helping, nothing can stop him." Nevertheless, even though she looked undeniably worried, there was a hint of fondness on her face, too. Tony wondered how often he made Pepper look like that.

"Checking everywhere that's been significant to Billy will still take ages, though." Steve looked disbelieving. "I don't know exactly how fast he is, but -"

"Let's put it this way," Teddy said, shaking his head in something like exasperation. "Once, he needed to get two kids safe from a battle in New York. He ran off and came back in a matter of seconds, having left them at Mount Rushmore."

"Right." Steve rubbed the bridge of his nose, doubtlessly trying his best not to calculate the speed involved. Tony had, and it gave him a headache. "How about we try both and see which brings results first?"

"Sounds like a plan. And in the meantime, JARVIS and I can sneak into SHIELD's systems to make use of their face recognition system." At Steve's disapproving glance, he shrugged. "What? Surely it's in Fury's best interests as well that his heroes aren't spread all around the globe."

"You're still not supposed to just bypass all of their security like that."

"Says the guy who just went and broke into their storage room." Tony pointed an accusing finger in his direction. "Besides, it's not like I'm snooping around this time. I'm just utilizing the best resources available to locate, may I remind you, a missing teenager we've more or less taken responsibility for."

Of course, that was not something Steve could deny, so he fell silent. Tony was tempted to feel rather smug about that, except he wasn't truly feeling like being smug. Not that he was affected or anything by all this, oh no. He was just busy thinking of the best ways to handle the situation, and wasting time on needless gloating would have interfered with that.

Regardless of his or JARVIS's best efforts, however, they hadn't yet found anything useful from the video feeds they had been scanning with the unwitting aid of the helicarrier's computers by the time a small whirlwind rushed in through the doors. Kate and Teddy, who had been engaged in a rather stern-toned conversation doubtlessly regarding the possible locations of their missing team member, turned at once to look at the now returned twin.

Tommy's face was almost as pale as his hair, one of his hands clutching onto something small. "I found this," he said, offering a piece of torn red fabric. "This, plus some footprints that were the right size for Billy."

"Oh?" Kate frowned. "And you didn't check the immediate vicinity?"

"Yeah, well, I'd have loved to, but I figured you wouldn't want me doing that on my own." He paused. "I found these in Latveria... right outside Doom's castle."

Well. Shit.

Things just got a whole lot more interesting, in a Chinese curse way.

*

"So, let me get this straight." Clint frowned, looking at the serious faces around the room. He had been the last to arrive, alerted at the range by JARVIS that something assembly-worthy was going on. Tony and Steve certainly seemed grim enough, while Bruce and Natasha were only just being briefed, like him. "Billy's gone bye-bye, and you think Doom has something to do with it?"

"The same Doom who attacked New York?" Bruce was fiddling with his glasses, cleaning them on the hem of his shirt. "And now he has Billy?"

"Far as we can tell, yes." Tony was frowning at a computer screen, which was never a good sign from what little experience Clint had managed to gather. "Can't confirm yet, and we can't exactly go on a strike without proof, not unless we want an international incident. However, it's a working theory."

"And how are you going to get your proof?" Natasha frowned. "I doubt Doom has any cameras inside his castle that SHIELD can pick up on."

"Can't you at least let me pretend you don't know everything about me?" Tony rolled his eyes.

"It would help if you didn't keep announcing you're going to use SHIELD's systems." Steve's words might have seemed like harmless teasing if not for his serious tone. "You are keeping at it, right?"

"Sure. If he's just about anywhere outside of a desert or said castle, he will show up sooner or later." Tony shook his head. "In the meantime, Mister Magical plans to keep tracking Billy's magic to see where it leads, but according to him it might take a while because, you know, chaos. So, until we get confirmation that he's inside or somewhere else, all we can do is plan." Strange didn't seem to be very fazed at the way Tony was speaking to him, which Clint figured told a great deal about either the man or the gravity of the situation.

"It's easy to say that," Kate pointed out, the sensible woman. "Except we have no idea what we should be planning for."

"Yeah, well, the worst-case scenario here is that we have a new supervillain at our hands." Tony frowned. "Billy gets his powers back, finds out he's fucked up more than he thought. Let's say he decides Strange simply doesn't know enough to solve the situation, and decides to look for, let's say, alternative forms of magical instruction."

"Is that really what you believe?" Kate's voice was low, a hint of coldness in it. "Do you really think that's something that Billy would do?"

"Hell no." Tony's response was out almost before Kate finished her question, without a hint of uncertainty in it. Apparently even he could be sure of something sometimes. "However, if we're unlucky, it might be what Doom is aiming for."

"Oh, no." Tommy shook his head. "The true worst-case scenario is that we have a repeat of what happened the last time."

"Last time?" Steve frowned. "You've dealt with Doom before? I mean, you were obviously familiar with his robots, but…"

"It was kind of a big part of the whole mess that made Billy stop heroics." Right. The same mess that ended with the death of two of their friends, if Clint remembered everything right from his chats with Kate. Wasn't this just abso-fucking-lutely cheerful. "We went looking for our original mother, we ended up in Latveria and found out Doom had somehow convinced her to marry him."

"Okay." Tony frowned. "Marrying a supervillain doesn't sound like a good idea, but then, I've been told love is blind."

"Oh, there was no love involved there." Teddy's expression was dark, but then, Clint doubted it had changed much since they first realized Billy was gone. "His plan was to convince her to let him use her magic so he could change the world. Given that his idea of a perfect world was one that he ruled, we couldn't exactly let him finish his plans."

"So, if his counterpart used your mother to increase his power," Tony mused, "then what's to say this Doom won't try to use the same with Billy?"

"The part where he's already engaged to someone else?" Tommy asked. "And even without nefarious marriage proposals, I don't care what you think, Billy wouldn't cooperate with Doom no matter what."

"Yes, well, that's kind of where the whole villain part comes in." Tony grimaced, not that Clint could blame him. It was hardly the most pleasant point to make. "Strange? Would it be possible for him to steal someone's power?"

"It certainly would be possible for Doom to force William to act as a conduit against his will," Strange replied, a reluctant look on his face. Obviously, the thought didn't please him any more than it did the rest of them. "William has had troubles with his magic because he is not properly aligned with the powers of this world. Someone with more experience with those forces, such as Doom, would be able to draw far more power through him than he is currently capable of utilizing himself."

Kate frowned, a mixture of worry and anger that well reflected what Tony might have felt at the moment if he'd admitted to actually caring. "That doesn't sound good."

"That's because it isn't." Strange shook his head. "If Doom were to draw too much before William manages to reclaim his full power, it could cause him to burn out permanently."

"You mean Billy could lose his magic?"

"His magic, his life, or both." Well. Didn't that sound cheerful.

"In any case, we have only one choice." Steve looked determined, which was good. He was the one who had the most experience with rescuing people from enemy territory, what with the whole HYDRA fortress Clint had heard far too much about. Phil had known every last detail available. "We have to go and get him back."

"That's easier said than done, though. Since the attack to New York, I've studied this Doom guy. When they say he has a castle, it's not the dainty princess type, but a fortress. Not to say we don't have the firepower to get in, but it's going to be hard to blast our way in without accidentally hurting Billy."

"Yeah, about that." Tommy lifted his hand. "If it's anything like our Doom's castle, and my quick round around it says it is, I could just go and open the back door. But, you know, blasting our way in works too, if that's your preference. I'm always up for a little explosion."

"So if magic footprints or whatever say he's in there, that's what we're doing, then?" Clint's hands were itching for his bow again. "Fly over there, march in, get him out?"

"Well, it's probably not going to be quite that simple," Steve sighed. "But that sounds like the best plan at the moment, yes."

"If Teen Flash here can get us in without having to blow up any walls, we'll already have a head start," Tony pointed out. "We locate Billy, fight whoever gets between us and him, get him out, and head off."

"Or, you know, we could kick Doom's ass for trying to take my baby brother," Tommy pointed out. "Like, make the place go sky high soon as we've got Billy secured."

"Much though I like the idea of good old-fashioned revenge, we really should be trying to avoid an international incident, remember?" Tony shook his head. "He may not be as much of an internationally recognized authority figure as I've understood your Doom to be, but I'm pretty sure someone would take notice if we started an all-out war in an European micronation."

"Getting Billy out will be enough," Teddy said, his voice quiet. "I understand what you feel, believe me, but we're not killers. Not even when it's Doom."

"See, this? This is why you need me on the team. Without me you'd be running around with halos and wings soon enough." Tommy paused. "Well, you're till lacking a halo, anyway."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Steve sighed. "We still don't even know for sure if he's there. For all we know, he might be brooding somewhere and will be back for dinner."

"Well, if that's what happened, we'll all be feeling a bit less murderous," Clint replied. "However, just in case we're not all back home for dinner, how about we get to the part of planning where we figure out how the Hell we're going to get there in time for Doom not to do anything absolutely nefarious."

"If he does plan to use William's magic, he cannot do it in a moment," Strange pointed out. "He hardly could have planned for the opportunity that William's sudden appearance would have given him, so it will take him some time to prepare. A ritual such as this can't be done in mere moments." He paused. "Well, unless one utilizes some very volatile chaos magic, and I am relieved to know that Victor von Doom's brand of power is somewhat more organized."

"Joy," Tony muttered. "The last thing we need is a bit more chaos."

"And yet, we're going to bring our own chaos back, safe and sound." Steve's expression was determined in a way Clint had never seen outside of a mission. "Otherwise, we'll have to start earning our name."

It wasn't exactly a pleasant thought, but Clint knew they all agreed nevertheless.


	17. Dude in Distress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy finds himself in quite the bad place, but thankfully, Avengers aren't known for leaving their own in trouble. Soon enough, everyone can head home.

Steve had never been too good at hurry up and wait.

It had been the good thing about the Commandos; once they got out in the field, Steve could do more or less what needed to be done, without waiting for some arbitrary approval. Sure, it still involved waiting for the best opportunity, but at least he felt like he was doing something. Right now, he felt utterly useless, sitting around with no way to contribute to the situation at all.

Everyone else was getting antsy as well, he could tell as much. Tommy in particular seemed agitated, rushing to and fro and asking for news every two minutes, while Teddy simply looked closed off, not talking to anyone. He kept trying to call Billy's phone, to no avail, but Steve wasn't going to tell him to stop. At least he had something to occupy himself with.

Tony had not rested a moment, badgering JARVIS about trying this or that next, working on hacking deeper into SHIELD's mainframe when he didn't. He also kept bouncing around ideas, how to do this or avoid that if they did have to go on a rescue operation, even dismissing Steve's quite reasonable worries about how they were going to get all the way to Latveria in time to help Billy.

"Oh, don't worry about trivial details like that," Tony scoffed, waving his hand. "I've been working on this nice new jet for SHIELD, got the prototype stowed away right here in the Tower. Both of our darling spies should be more than capable of flying it."

"A prototype?" Steve frowned. "Are you sure that's safe?"

"Please. It's based on my repulsors, of course it's safe. It's also much faster than any other method of going there, save for letting Speed carry us over one by one, and I for one am not taking the chance of him running out of energy in the middle of an ocean."

"I wasn't going to suggest that! Just, surely there are other planes you could get us to."

"None as close by and as fast. We need the best for this, Steve." Tony gave him a serious look. "I happen to know Bruce's already having trouble not shifting right away, and the Hawkeyes are this close to putting an arrow through the next thing that moves in their sight, and the boys will explode one way or another soon enough. We can't waste a single moment, not as soon as we have some sort of a confirmation."

"If you are sure." He knew Tony might take risks with his own health and safety, but never with others.

"Of course I'm sure." Tony was about to say something else, but just then, he was cut off.

"Sir?" JARVIS's voice echoed in the room. "Doctor Strange informs me he has indeed tracked the traces of Master William's magic over to Latveria."

"Damn, I was sure I'd be before him." Tony frowned, but then took on a somewhat manic grin. "Tell everyone to suit up and meet us at the plane, JARVIS. We've got a rescue operation to get to."

Steve headed out of the room at a run, hearing as Tony called for his suit behind him, knowing the others would be ready to go in a matter of minutes. It was just as well; they likely had none to spare.

He could only hope it wasn't already too late.

*

Billy knew he was in trouble even before he opened his eyes.

He could have figured out that much just from his few hazy memories. He remembered landing in a familiar landscape, taking a few staggering steps, and then someone grabbing him with hands that seemed too strong for your average human, right before he lost his consciousness entirely. It didn't really take a genius to realize that probably didn't mean anything good.

Of course, all that information was rather extraneous anyway, what with the way he found himself shackled to the wall, cold metal around his wrists. Fighting back unfortunate memories — no, he was not going to get flashbacks now, thank you — he forced his eyes open, taking in his surroundings.

He was in the middle of a vast stone-walled hall, bigger than should have surely been allowed anywhere outside a cathedral of some sort. The magic circle on the floor in front of him was alone the size of his parents' living room, and it seemed small compared with the rest of the space. There were candles and heavy drapes everywhere, making the whole place look like something out of a low-budget fantasy film. Yeah, this wasn't ominous at all.

Then Doom walked in, and things got a whole lot worse.

"I see you are awake at last." Doom walked right up to him, doing his best to be menacing. It was kind of working, especially with the way Billy was utterly helpless right now. "About time. I would prefer you to be awake for this."

"Awake for what, exactly?" Billy suppressed the flood of relief as he could at least hear himself. If he hadn't been able to do that, he probably would have freaked out for real. "Torture? You want me to scream?"

"Oh, nothing quite so uncouth. What would I receive for my efforts if I did that? You have not offended me quite enough to make your pain alone a sufficient outcome."

"Right." Okay, focus, Billy. You probably can't talk your way out of this, but at least you'll have to stall for time while you figure out the situation. "What is it you're after, then?"

"I would think that is quite simple." Doom gave a chuckle that wasn't terrifying at all, okay so that was a lie, it was horrible and he was appropriately terrified. "I want your magic."

"Should have known." Billy sighed. "Though, hey, how would you know? I haven't exactly used any obvious magic in public."

"Oh, please. Do you think Doom a mere amateur? Several of my minions picked up the energy readings of your magical potential as you fought them in New York. I have planned to take it for myself ever since, though I have to admit, I never expected you to arrive into my hands by yourself."

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Though he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"Quite simple." Doom tapped his gloved fingers against one of the shackles around Billy's wrists. "These are currently channeling your energy, and will soon be feeding it to me. Which is why I needed you to be awake; it makes it easier to keep an eye on you so I don't drain you prematurely."

"Prematurely meaning you plan to do so eventually."

"Well, of course. What use would such power be if I were tied to someone else to receive it? Once I establish your power as mine, you will be useless. There is little place for empty husks in the world of Doom."

"And it's going to be that simple, eh, Victor?" He was playing with fire and he knew it, but it was better to be snarky than to panic, surely. "At least when you tried to do the same to my mom you had the decency to offer to marry her first."

Doom's eyes flashed with something, annoyance, most likely. In the background doombots started to enter the room in droves, lining the walls like the world's closest approximation to an actual clone army. "Your little lies tire Doom, child," the main threat himself drawled. "Though then, that is a matter easily remedied. Soon you will do little but scream for mercy."

"I knew you wanted to make me scream. I'd say something about how you need to get laid, but honestly? I'm not sure anyone is kinky enough to hit that. Mom doesn't count, she was literally not in her right mind."

"Yet which one of us is the one rambling quite void of sanity?" Doom turned now, walking to his very much ominous magic circle. "Perhaps I will be merciful and return your remains to your little group of friends before I grind them to dust under me heel."

"Okay, that? That is not a good idea. You know they're called the Avengers, right? And they kind of take that seriously. You really, really don't want to give them a reason to avenge anything."

"Reason? Yes. The opportunity? Not likely." Doom spun around, his cape twirling about him, then started a strange chant.

Billy had been about to say something, but instead found himself indeed screaming.

His magic was flowing through him, white-hot and freezing at the same time, coursing from his core and toward his fingertips, yet before it ever got out it was ripped from him, flying through the air toward Doom. The air was sparkling with blue, pinpricks of light dancing toward the ceiling so far above, all that power that should have been his stolen like so much pixie dust. It was like claws running along the inside of his skin, sharp and cutting deep.

The roar that accompanied the appearance of a Hulk-shaped hole in the wall did manage to be louder than his pained screams, but it was a near thing, still.

*

Tommy's first feeling as he caught sight of his brother was relief at the lack of anything even vaguely resembling ear implants.

Of course, this was rapidly replaced by even more worry and anger than before as he saw Billy's pained face and the no doubt magical shackles tying him to the wall. He looked pale, too, more so than he had since their first day or two at the Tower. Whatever Doom was doing obviously wasn't good for him. Because he hadn't been able to figure that out from the screaming earlier.

Fortunately for Billy, and likely for the continued wellbeing of all mankind, Tommy was at his side in a flash. He waved off Billy's relieved call of his name, inspecting the shackles. He was pretty sure he could have blown them up, but that wouldn't have been very good for Billy, given the fact his arms were still inside them. Perhaps he was picky, but magic-imbued metal shrapnel through his wrists didn't sound like Tommy's idea of a good time.

"Hey, baby brother, we came to get you home." He managed a grin. "However, this being a magical matter and all, you kinda have to help me out here. How about you wish yourself out of these?"

"I can't do that." Billy turned his head away, unwilling to meet his gaze. Too bad Tommy could change his spot faster than Billy could move his head.

"Sure you can. You managed to teleport, right? It's all in your head, just believe in yourself, blah blah blah." He glanced over his shoulder to where everyone else was blasting away at the doombots, Teddy struggling to get closer through the swarm. "Come on. We're here to rescue you, but you'll have to do some work, too."

"Why?" The pained word made him blink in surprise. "Why would any of you want to rescue me?"

"Uh, hello?" Tommy raised his eyebrows. "I know I'm the token evil teammate, but did you really think I'd leave my baby brother in the hands of an insane villain? Next thing we know he'll try to marry you, too, and nobody's going to stand for Teddy's bawling if that happens."

"You should just leave me here." Damn, this was almost as bad as the half a year of barely speaking, only a very different kind of bad. "Why would you want me back? I'm the one who got us all into this mess to begin with."

"Yes, well, technically, but so what. It's not like you changed the entire world into the House of M all over again." Something flickered over Billy's face, and Tommy gaped. "Oh my God you totally thought this was another House of M."

"It is a perfectly plausible scenario." Yeah, right. "And even if this isn't an illusion, it just means I've landed us all in the wrong world to begin with."

"Oh, come on!" Tommy shouted, struggling to have his voice heard as Hulk shouted something unintelligible in the background. He wasn't too surprised to hear Teddy responding. He'd always taken it pretty badly when someone hurt his boyfriend, after all. "What, do you blame our mom for making us, too?"

"Of course not. How could I? But that's not the point. When she made us, she didn't take us away from anything. It's nothing like this!"

"Like Hell it isn't. It's exactly like this." He had to get through, had to make Billy understand. "You didn't bring us over from anywhere, you made us! There's still Teddy and Billy and Tommy and Kate back where we came from!"

"No." Billy's voice was hardly more than a horrified whisper. "No, that can't -"

"We're not the originals, Billy. We're copies, just like you and I were always copies of William and Thomas. We can't go home because there's nowhere else for us to go."

"So it's even worse than I thought." Billy was so very pale, again refusing to meet his eyes, and if Doom had been within easy reach Tommy would have tested his ability to blow up someone's balls one at a time. "There's no way for me to undo this."

"Well, there might, but frankly I don't want you to." Tommy shook his head. "I won't say I understand all this, but from what Strange said it seems that me, this version of me, wouldn't exist if you hadn't made us. Maybe I'm selfish, but I sure as Hell am not ready to stop existing just so you can put things back the way they were."

"But that doesn't change the fact that without me, this wouldn't have happened."

"True. But now that it has, I'd rather get used to this than have you try to fix things and wipe out either us or the originals."

"It's not like I even could. Not without my magic."

"Yeah, about that." There really wasn't much time, but then, if he couldn't convince Billy, there wasn't much he could do anyway. "Chances are it's because you don't want to belong here. Strange told you you're not aligned with this world or some shit, right? Well, as long as you keep thinking that this is the wrong world or an illusion or whatever, you won't. Worst case scenario, your magic will tear you apart trying to force you to do so. And for all that I know you're the king of angst or whatever, I'm not going to be the one comforting mister big and green if that happens."

"Teddy -"

"Knows all this. And so does Kate, and believe me, all of us would rather get used to this world than disappear." Why couldn't he see that? "You didn't do this on purpose, and you can't fix it, and we don't blame you for any of this! But we do need you to come around before things end up in even deeper shit than before."

Billy just stared at him without a response. Well. Wasn't that just great.

"We need you to come around, little brother. We can't stop Doom while he's using your magic, and unless you accept the facts, you can't take it for your own." He hadn't planned the sound of an explosion in the background, but he had to admit it couldn't have been at a more dramatically opportune moment. "Come on, Billy. You've saved the day before. Do it again."

"I never wanted to hurt you."

"Yeah, yeah, we know. And, you know, you're the one who's lost the most, frankly." Tommy touched his shoulder. "Get it together, Wiccan. Avengers Assemble and all that shit. Or don't you want to be an Avenger? A real one, not a kid nobody will take seriously?"

It was a gamble and he knew it, but apparently, that did the trick. Billy's head jerked up, his gaze wandering to where the rest were fighting. "I want this," he murmured. "If we can't go home, I want to at least have this."

"That's it, bro." He stepped back, giving Billy some space. The fireworks tended to take up some. "Now let's get back to your sweetheart, hm?"

"Teddy." Yeah, uh, that was kind of what he'd said. "Teddy needs me."

"Yeah, he kind of always does." Tommy grinned. "How about we kick Doom's shiny metal ass and go home?"

"Yeah. Home." And then, in that special tone Tommy had long since come to associate with magic, the one that sounded blue though Hell if he knew how it managed to do that, "I want us all to be home."

Tommy stepped back the moment the world in front of him flashed blue, everything enveloped in the bright light. As he turned to look, the others had fallen into the usual illusion of slow motion, letting him see exactly what happened. Everyone else turned towards them, watching, while Doom's face turned into an expression as close to rage as was possible for a guy with a slab of metal over his head. That wasn't important, though. What was important were the tendrils of blue light sucked out of Doom, fizzling through air like tiny lightning bolts, until they finally sank back to their rightful owner.

"Well done, baby brother," Tommy murmured as he watched Billy floating in the air, glowing like some seriously misplaced oversized Christmas light. "Now take us out of here."

He wasn't sure if Billy heard him or if he'd been thinking the same. Either way, he suddenly felt the familiar, nauseating feeling of the world shifting around him, just a bit, and then suddenly they weren't in Doom's megalomaniac castle anymore. Instead, he fell onto the floor of the Quinjet, infinitely grateful for his reflexes for saving his gorgeous ass from a bruise.

"Well," said a familiar voice that made it clear enough they weren't the only ones who had made it out. "I take it the magic is back in full?"

"Um, yeah." Billy gave a sheepish smile at Cap, and though he looked a little abashed, the blue glow was still just as strong. "Sorry it took a while."

"Eh, we're all still here and more or less in one piece. Seems fast enough for me." Tony waved his hand. "Now, how about we get our asses back home before we find out whether Doom has adequate air support?"

"Yeah," said Billy, and his legs gave way almost the moment his feet touched the floor again. Lucky thing Teddy was right there to catch him. "Yeah, let's go home."

It was, Tommy supposed, as good as things were going to get. They'd take care of the details once they got back, but for now, they had Billy and Billy had his magic and no world was going to get taken over by anybody, not today.

Right now, he planned to sit down next to Kate and get a damn nap.

*

It was, Tony noted, a remarkably quiet flight back home.

He supposed it wasn't that big of a surprise, given how tired they all were. Bruce had turned back into his usual cuddly self as soon as they had appeared back in the jet, then fallen asleep the moment he'd managed to sit down and strap himself in. Clint and Natasha at least had enough energy left to bicker about which one of them should fly home, only for Cap to intervene and ask each of them to pilot for half the trip. Tony supposed it was good enough; they did have some distance to cover, after all.

The kids were huddled together, all eager to make sure their friends were all right. Kate failed the initial check, having acquired a wound to her head; despite her continued insistence that she was fine and it looked far worse than it was, Tommy appeared ready to run right back to punch Doom in the face. Again, it was Cap to the rescue, as he gently suggested that he help her clean and bandage the wound so it wouldn't get worse until they got somewhere they could stitch it together. At this, Tommy immediately rushed to action, fetching the first aid kit in a blur. There was worry in his eyes as he returned that he would probably never admit and Tony wasn't going to push him about.

Teddy seemed much calmer now than he had ever since they had noticed Billy was missing, the last bits of green disappearing from him. He didn't seem to be about to let go of Billy any time soon, not that anyone was inclined to make him. Just because they were willing to go along with less than stellar plans didn't mean they were actually suicidal.

"Do you think they'll be fine?" Steve murmured as he sat down next to Tony. "I mean, all this must have been a shock."

"They're made of pretty tough stuff, Cap." At least he liked to believe so. "Sure, it's going to be a while before they fully adjust, but I think in the end they'll be just fine."

"Are you sure?" Steve frowned. "I mean… now they know they can't get back no matter what they try."

"Yes, I'm sure." He had to be, because he refused to acknowledge any other options. "It's not like we don't have prior experience dealing with people who have lost everything familiar."

Steve blinked, and then his expression softened. "I suppose." He took off his cowl at last, revealing the tousled mop of sweaty hair. It shouldn't have been so ridiculously attractive, really it shouldn't. "Ah. Are you really comfortable like that?" He indicated Tony's suit, still on aside from the visor, which he had lifted up at their arrival in the Quinjet.

"Yeah, well, I kind of need it, still." At Steve's puzzled expression, he let the visor flick back down, bringing up the HUD. "JARVIS? How did we do?"

"The damages to the castle were quite extensive," JARVIS replied. "Furthermore, aside from the damage during the battle, it appears the final lash of energy that accompanied your transferal here collapsed several nearby structures, which would cause at least a partial collapse of the ceiling and walls. Judging by the readings of the energy spike recorded by the suit, any electronic devices left in the range would likely have been rendered nonfunctional."

"Good." He couldn't help the tiny bit of vengeance in his voice. First the bastard attacked his city, and then he stole away one of the kids Tony was more or less trying to keep alive. "So that should take care of any more doombots for now?"

"I do believe so, Sir. Certainly, he has the capability to construct more, but it should be a while before he is able to mount a full-on assault again."

"Excellent." Bringing the visor back up, he grinned at Steve. "So it seems we fried most of Doom's shit," he said, unable to keep some of the satisfaction out of his tone. "Well, Billy did when he flashed us out of there, on top of all the bots we blasted while getting to him. With any luck, it'll be a good long while before our least favorite masked megalomaniac thinks about attacking us again."

"I do hope so." Steve sighed, running a hand over his hair, which utterly failed to make it any less messy or any less attractive. "We all need a proper break after that mess."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll get a break, all right," Tony replied, unable to keep the hint of post-battle exhaustion from his voice even as he smirked at Steve. "Right after we explain everything to Pepper and Fury."

He shouldn't have been so amused by Steve's look of barely contained horror, but he really couldn't help it.

"Hey, don't worry. Feel free to blame it all on me, we do need to still have at least someone on the team that they actually like." He patted Steve on the shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. "Now. Want to help me get the suit off? I'm sure nimble hands like yours would be a great help in finding all the release switches."

Okay, he could absolutely forgive the attractiveness of Steve's messy hair as long as it was accompanied by an adorable blush like that.


	18. Choices and Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Avengers head home, Steve is in for a surprise, while Tony has a brilliant idea he may or may not have told anyone about. Billy, meanwhile, finds the reality sinking in once he's over his literally magical high.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yesterday's update was the second chapter to [Mothers And Sons](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1082979), in which Erik had a serious discussion with one of his grandsons.

The first thing they met as they finally arrived back at the Tower was a very annoyed Pepper Potts.

Steve was standing by, making sure all the kids got out of the plane without problem, as she strode up to them, heels clicking against the floor with an imperious tone. She looked as proper and put-together as ever, but the look in her eyes was anything but calm.

"Anthony Edward Stark." Her voice was cold as the arctic ice. "What exactly was this?"

"Oh, you know. A good old international rescue operation." Tony waved his hand. He had taken off his suit on the way back, his hair still slightly flattened from the helmet, signs of exhaustion on his face that he usually didn't let show through. However, his grin was as genuine as ever. "Technically it might also count as an invasion, but frankly, I doubt Doom is going to make that big of a fuss about it. If he did he'd have to admit that we laid total waste to his grand and proud castle."

"You know that's not what I meant." She narrowed her eyes, coming to a halt in front of him. "Why would you rush off without any warning like that? I didn't even know what was going on until you were halfway across the Atlantic!"

"We didn't exactly have a choice," Tony replied. "Billy was gone and then we found out an insane megalomaniac supervillain had him. What do you think we should have done, left him to Doom?"

"You know very well that's not what I mean." Pepper crossed her arms over her chest. "You could have at least taken five minutes to inform me before rushing in! You didn't even call Rhodey for help. He was closer anyway, he probably could have been there before you. And don't you dare tell me one man wouldn't have made much of a difference."

"Well, really, he couldn't have, considering that we won." Which was a valid point, but somehow Steve didn't think Tony's delivery of it was going to convince Pepper. "Everyone got home safe and sound, and mostly in one piece. Obviously, our plan was a success."

"And if it hadn't been?" Her tone sharpened. "What if Kate's head wound had been a crushed skull instead? What if the magic had been too much for Billy? Just because nothing terrible happened doesn't mean the plan was the best possible one!"

"It was the best we could come up with at such a short notice! Come on. The kids are shaken but they'll be fine. And just to make sure, we're having everyone checked over, by actual doctors and not just Bruce, and yes, the doctors should already be here, I had JARVIS call some in. I'm not entirely irresponsible, you know."

"I know you're not. However, you are far too happy to take risks with your own health and safety." Pepper finally reached out her hands, cupping Tony's face in them. "I'm not ready to plan the first big superhero funeral just yet. That means that you should be more careful with yourself."

"I'm sorry, Pep." Tony's voice softened, a hand coming up to cover hers, a worn, calloused hand covering her soft fingers. Steve knew every mark and burn scar on those rough hands, had studied them often enough to know them by heart, and right now he was aching to feel them touch him instead. "I'll be more careful next time."

"I know you won't be," Pepper replied. "But I'm stupid enough to trust you anyway."

They shared a gaze, then, just the two of them, oblivious to anything that was going on around them. Steve watched them, transfixed with the sight, and was somewhat ashamed to realize he wasn't sure which one of them he envied more.

Suddenly the peace was broken, Pepper twirling around to face him quick enough that Steve almost feared the heels of her shoes were going to drill right into the floor. "And you! What do you think you were doing?"

To his surprise, Steve realized she was talking to him. "Um. I'm sorry?"

"That doesn't cut it. I know Tony can be reckless when he thinks he's got a good plan, but you should know better at least! Why would you let him do something so stupid? I expected better of you, Steve!"

"I'm sorry, Ma'am. I didn't —"

"Call me that one more time and I will feed you to my pet guinea pig."

"You don't actually have a guinea pig, though." If Steve had ever wondered if Tony actually had a death wish, that would have answered the question.

"And? You'll just have to buy me one." Pepper's eyes were still on Steve, sharp and brilliant in her fury. "You. You're coming with me."

"Coming with you where?" For all that he was supposed to have superhuman senses and reflexes, Steve's brain didn't catch on to the fact that she had grasped his hand until she was already starting to drag him away. Tony, firmly held by her other hand, met his gaze behind her head, shaking his head minutely.

"What do you think?" Pepper raised her eyebrows. "Like I'm going to trust either of you to actually be honest with the doctors. I'm going to make sure you're not hiding any wounds or scratches myself."

"Oh, both of us?" Tony wiggled his eyebrows with a smirk. "Now that's something I didn't think I was going to hear."

"Oh, please." Pepper's tone was suffering, but Steve could have sworn he caught the hint of a smile on her lips. "As though you haven't had fantasies that started with precisely this scenario."

It was probably for the best he didn't catch on to that particular implication until they were out of the door, safely away from the kids so he could blush in peace.

It was also for the best that at that point he didn't yet know exactly how she was planning to conduct her inspection.

*

 

It was weird, but Billy didn't feel tired at all. He knew he had used a lot of magic at once, far more than should have been necessary for him to transport them all to the plane, but instead of feeling exhausted and wrung out he was still brimming with energy even after their long flight back. He finally had all of his magic, the energy running through his veins in a rush, and he could barely keep from skipping.

His magical high was only slightly dampened by the inspection by the doctors, though mostly due to the look of worry that twisted Teddy's face when he heard the list of complaints. It was just minor stuff, bruises and scrapes and a concussion, and Billy wanted nothing as much as to tell him it would be okay, everything was going to be fine, just you wait and see.

Of course, Tommy was fretting even more, running literal circles around Kate and the doctor stitching up her wound, blathering on about how he should have just finished Doom once and for all, really, where did the guy get off, first taking his mother and then his brother and then trying to split his girlfriend's skull. Kate seemed mildly annoyed, but her expression softened enough at the last statement that Billy suspected she was going to forgive him very easily.

"So where'd Cap and Tony go?" Clint asked as he appeared as well, having stayed behind to look over the plane. "Don't tell me the idiots skipped check-up because of course they're fine."

"No, that's more of your tendency." Natasha was cleaning her nails with a knife, looking at them critically before glancing at him. "Pepper appeared and dragged them both away."

"Oh? And to what end?"

"Most likely?" This time, the one speaking was Tommy, having come to a startling stop right next to Billy. "To be the first person in this reality to bag two superheroes at the same time."

"Tommy!" Billy stared at his twin. Sure, he was hardly the epitome of politeness, but that was pretty far even for him. "She wouldn't do that and you know it."

"Given the way they've been flirting with each other for ages? I'm certainly not volunteering to go and check."

Billy raised his eyebrows. "You can't be serious."

"What are you, blind? They've been circling each other the whole time we've been here. Probably longer than that, but I don't have evidence of it." Tommy rolled his eyes. "I once saw Cap drawing Tony in the workshop. Which, yeah, he's into that kind of shit, but his expression was the same one Teddy has when you're blathering about this comic book or that. He's smitten, let me tell you."

"Yes, well, things aren't quite that simple," Billy protested. "Definitely not when the guy he's staring at already has a girlfriend."

"Maybe, but if anyone in this team would be open to a threesome, it's Tony Stark. Pretty sure he said in an interview once he's had several." Billy blinked, turning to look at Natasha, who had suddenly appeared at their side, her eyes likewise fixed on the doorway the three had left by. "Along with various higher permutations."

"And at least one set of twins." Clint sounded practically cheerful as he added this. "Which is probably the furthest we should allow this conversation to go, for the sake of everyone's sanity."

"Ugh. Agreed." Billy shuddered. "Teddy? If you ever even suggest something like that, I'm breaking up with you so hard, you won't know what hit you."

"Don't worry." Teddy drew him in close. "I only like you, not inferior copies with insufficient pigment."

"I'd get offended at that shit, but for one thing I know you're stupidly smitten and for another I don't particularly care what a guy thinks about my attractiveness." Tommy did, however, take a step towards Kate. Billy wondered if he even noticed doing so.

"So you only like me, hmm?" Billy leaned his head against Teddy's shoulder. "What if a Skrull shows up looking just like me?"

"I'd like to think I could tell the difference." Teddy pressed a kiss to his hair, and, oh yes, he really loved this guy.

"And how do you do that?" Because now, he was kind of curious.

Teddy stepped away for a second just to grin at him. "Why do you think I always ask you to lock the door with magic before we go to bed?"

"Devious, Altman. And here I thought you were too eager to get your hands on me to leave even for a moment."

"Okay, that's enough of that," Tommy sighed, a grimace on his face. Hypocrite. Half the time he was the one teasing them about their relationship and what it possibly entailed. "Next thing we know the science lady's going to start interrogating you about the Skrull mating habits."

"Oh, no." And when exactly had Jane come along? Billy certainly hadn't noticed her approach. "Individual behavior is hardly indicative of species-wide phenomena, certainly not when both the individual's genetics and cultural background are mixed with other influences."

"I'm pretty sure that even if that weren't true, it'd be useless to use an overly scientific approach to studying horny teenagers." Clint grinned at her.

"In any case, such things are somewhat outside my field." She adjusted her glasses with one hand, then offered Billy a pile of books. "Here. I think these are for you."

Billy blinked. "Um, why?" He took the pile of books from her. There weren't many of them, but they were all thick tomes, appearing quite old. "What are these?"

"Doctor Strange dropped them off after everyone left to save you. He said something like it's no use for you to get your magic working again if you use it like a beginner."

"Oh, great." Billy sighed. "The Sorcerer Supreme disapproves of my technique."

"Well, to be fair, you are pretty much self-taught," Teddy pointed out, entirely too reasonably in Billy's opinion. "And besides, you can't exactly hope for a better teacher, can you?"

"Assuming he's actually willing to teach me instead of just appearing oh-so-shocked that I don't work the same way he does."

"Well, he gave you books, didn't he?" Which, yeah, that was true. "Obviously he takes some interest in your education."

"We'll see." He nudged Teddy with his elbow, as his hands were somewhat full, and gave him a grin. "Come on. You can help me look over these books to see where I should start." Though first of all, he needed to re-acquaintance himself with his boyfriend.

"Of course. Wouldn't want you to be unprepared, after all." Teddy grinned back, starting to walk away with him. Judging by the hand at the small of Billy's back, his thoughts were moving along the same lines.

"Just remember, I'm too young to be an uncle!" Tommy shouted after them. Billy did not even bother to snap something back at him.

He was home, with Teddy, his team, and his magic. Nothing, absolutely nothing and no one was allowed to ruin this.

*

Steve was asleep.

Tony did his best not to feel incredibly smug about that. If he had allowed himself as much as a smirk, Pepper would have been sure to remind him about the fact that a highly physical battle and a long flight, even in a private jet personally designed by none other than the foremost genius of the generation, could tire anyone out. Therefore, he contented himself with merely watching his chest rise and fall, admiring the muscles.

"You should get some sleep as well." Pepper's hand ran along his arm, so very light. "Yes, I'm still going to ask that you have a doctor look you both over eventually, but that can wait until you've managed to rest for a moment."

"I'm not that tired." Tired, yes, exhausted even, but he also knew that any attempt at sleep would have been futile. While his body was utterly worn out, his mind was running at speeds even the white-haired brat would have had to respect.

"Sure you aren't." Pepper moved closer to him, pressing against his back, before he felt the faint brush of hair on his shoulder as she leaned to look over him at Steve. "I have to say, I'm slightly surprised he didn't try to run screaming."

"Yes, well, he's not quite as innocent as he appears." Tony gave a dramatic sigh. "It seems forties weren't entirely comprised of prudishness and purity. Who knew? And anyway, you did make a rather convincing argument."

Pepper snorted, warm air on his skin, and honestly, nothing was as lovely as feeling her close like this. "I think the poor boy was just torn because he wanted us both and couldn't possibly believe it wasn't entirely out of his reach."

"Yes, well, there might have been that, too." Hey, he could admit that much. "Good thing we convinced him otherwise, eh?"

"You mean, I convinced him while you kept making lewd comments."

"Considering we wanted him in bed, I'd say the lewd comments totally helped."

"I shall make no comment on that." Pepper's lips twitched. "I hope you realize he's probably not the type to go for one-night stands."

"Good thing, too. That'd make for some really awkward teamwork." Tony paused. "Wait. If I'm dating two people, does that mean I have to be double as faithful, or only half as much?"

"It means you're lucky I love you enough to let you live after that question." Of course, she was joking. She wouldn't have actually killed him. What would she have done without her perfect scapegoat whenever something went wrong at Stark Industries?

"I'm lucky that you love me, period." See? He could totally be sappy, too.

"Mmm, I'm not arguing with that." Her arm snaked around his waist, and that? That, he could definitely live with.

He enjoyed the silence for a moment, the warmth of Pepper against his back and the sound of Steve's steady breaths in front of him, the sight of his hair even more messed up than right after the battle. Finally, though, he couldn't keep the swirling thoughts trapped inside his head any longer.

"Hey, Pepper? What's the current contingency plan in case any illegitimate children of mine show up?"

Pepper raised her eyebrows. He couldn't see it, of course, but he could hear it well enough in her voice, the raised eyebrows and slightly widened eyes of perfect innocence and slight affront at being accused of such a thing. Wasn't it just a joy to know her so very well? "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Please, Pepper. You're too competent to overlook a perfectly valid possibility that would cause a scandal for sure." He turned around to face her, and if that brought his back very close to Steve's warm body, well, he wasn't going to complain. "I'm not offended, you know. I just want to know the protocol in place."

"Well, that would depend on the circumstances." She tilted her head to the side, a sharp glint in her eyes that was in stark contrast with the hint of a smile on her face. "Such as the age of the child, whether there is a mother in the picture, and how this situation was discovered."

"Ah, yes, so very sensible." Tony finally let a grin creep on his face. "How about two teenagers who showed up at my doorstep one day because their mother unfortunately perished in a car crash?"

"I hope you realize you're going to need some evidence to back that up?" And yet, she hadn't told him no yet.

"I hope you realize I have JARVIS on my side. I'm sure he can fake enough evidence of their existence before they got here. You know how record keeping can be in those tiny towns."

"So, I'm going to assume you plan to claim the twins for yourself. What about the rest, though?"

"Well, Kate's old enough to take care of herself, so she's not necessarily going to need fake guardians. As for Teddy, I'm sure we can convince someone else to pose as his parent." Tony leaned up on one elbow. "Brucey would be the most logical one, of course, but we'll make do with what we can get."

"And how long exactly have you been planning this?"

"Hm? Not very long. Though I suppose that would depend on what you mean by planning."

"Let me reiterate." Pepper gave him an extremely unimpressed look, though there was still a hint of a smile on her lips. "When did you first get the idea of posing as their father?"

"Eh, it came to me gradually." He shrugged. "I more or less made up my mind by the time I found out what had happened to their would-be family in this world."

"Right." Pepper's lovely eyebrows rose. "And why exactly would you do that?"

"Well, it was clear that they didn't have anywhere else to go around here, so someone has to take them in. Obviously I'm the best choice."

"Which you obviously ran by them and got their approval for this hare-brained plan?"

"Hey, I take offense at that. My brain is genius." Tony sniffed. "Besides, they're still alive, aren't they? So obviously I'm not that bad a father figure."

"That's not the point, though, Tony. The point is that there's a big difference between helping them get settled into a new environment and declaring yourself their father. I can see why you'd feel enough sympathy for hopeless cases to do the former, but the latter is rather out of character for you."

Damn Pepper and her sharp, clever eyes always seeing right through him. "Are you accusing me of ulterior motives?"

"You're Tony Stark. You have ulterior motives when you breathe."

"Touché, my love. You do know me quite well, it seems." He paused. "Let's just say I know what it's like to be judged for your parents rather than your own achievements. And, well, you know I have a tendency to want to atone for my foul deeds. Turns out, I'm really good at feeling guilty even when the offender is an alternative version of me."

"Oh, Tony." There was a hint of exasperation in her tone, but it was fond exasperation, so he supposed it was all right. "You know there are options between being entirely irresponsible and bearing all the responsibility, right?"

"Sure I do." He lifted a hand to touch the side of her face, so soft, so beautiful. "And you know I'm an all or nothing kind of guy, right?"

"I suppose I do." Her lips quirked ever so slightly. "Very well. I'll back you up when you pitch your plan to the kids, but if they say no, you're not allowed to keep pushing."

"Fortunately, I also have experience with less than desirable parental units."

"That's true, too." She ran a hand across his chest, touching the arc reactor with gentle fingertips. "First, though, sleep. I have a feeling we'll have to convince Steve all over again when he wakes up." At his leer, she rolled her eyes. "Convince him by talking, Tony. Remember, if we want him, it's going to have to work outside the bed, too."

"I know, I know." He softened his expression into a smile. "For you, I'll do anything. Even sleep." Every now and then, at least.

"Prove it." She truly was a devious woman. "Sleep, Tony. I promise they will all still be here tomorrow."

"They'd better be. I'm not doing another intercontinental rescue operation at least until next week."

She chuckled as he closed his eyes, but he supposed he could forgive her, just this once.

As long as she was there with him.

*

Billy's hair smelled of electricity.

The smell was sharp yet comforting as Teddy held him close, face hidden in Billy's hair, his arm reached around his boyfriend to hold him close. He knew they would have to get up and join the world eventually, but right now he could not be persuaded to let go of Billy under any circumstances. Not when he had just got him back.

Billy's hands were curled up against Teddy's chest, his face hidden against Teddy's broader shoulder. He seemed just as inclined to move away as Teddy was to let go of him.

"Teddy?" Billy's voice was little more than a whisper, but he heard it well enough.

"Yeah?" Billy's hair tickled his nose as he spoke. He could have sworn he saw a little spark dancing at the tips of the dark locks.

"I'm never going to see my family again, am I?"

Teddy froze. Somehow, in all his worry and fear over Billy, and then the relief at having him back, he had somehow missed the larger implications of their predicament. They did not have to worry about finding a way back - but at the same time, they could not return even if they wished to. No matter who had been left behind.

"Not if we stay here, no," he replied, his voice quiet. "And we can't exactly go back, since we are already there."

"And the Kaplans in this world have never even heard of me." Billy shivered, the shudder running through his entire body.

"Yes, well, knowing your parents, we probably could convince them you are their kid. Or that there are now two of every one of us."

"Yeah, maybe." Billy managed a weak chuckle. "I'm not entirely sure that'd be a good idea, though."

"Yeah, probably not." Teddy tightened his hold around him, just a little. "I'm sorry."

"Pretty sure this is my own fault."

"No, it's not." Teddy's voice was firm, determined to convince Billy of this no matter what. "You didn't do any of this on purpose. It's not your fault your magic decided this world could benefit from some extra heroes."

"It was still my own magic." Billy's fingers curled into fists. "And now we are stuck here."

"Well, all things considered, there are worse places to get stuck in." Teddy placed a tiny kiss on Billy's hair. "I miss your family too, they were great. And I can't even imagine how badly you miss them. I mean, I still miss my mom so badly I just want to cry sometimes, and it's been years. But we have people who care about us, and your brother and Kate, and we have each other. We will survive."

Billy was quiet for a moment. "Sorry," he murmured then. "I probably seem horrible, whining about my family when they are at least alive."

"Never. You still lost them. I know my mother might still be alive in countless other worlds, but that doesn't make the pain any less real or any less, well, painful."

"Then what does?"

"In my experience? Little else but time." Another kiss, longer now, lingering in the electric smell. "But at least we have that. We have time, and it's time we won't have to worry about the X-men deciding you're a threat, or the Skrulls or Kree showing up and demanding me to come rule them or fight for them, or even just the media discovering Tommy's delinquent past."

"I'm pretty sure Tommy will still manage to get a bad reputation even here."

"Mmm, I don't know. You forget he's contending with Tony Stark for the negative attention, here. That might prove a bit much even for him."

"True." Billy gave him a chuckle, a weak one, yes, but it was still there. "Though knowing Tommy, he will just take that as a challenge."

"Very much possible. We'll just have to thank our lucky stars Kate is good at damage control."

"Indeed." Billy was again quiet for a while. "At least I still have you."

"Always," Teddy murmured. "You will always have me, I promise. Just like I will always have you."

"No matter what." Billy seemed to hesitate a bit before whispering, "Is it still okay if I want to cry?"

"As much as you need to, love." Teddy only held him tighter.

Some time later, after Billy had cried himself into exhausted sleep, Teddy glanced up at the ceiling. "JARVIS? Don't bother waking us up for food or whatever. We'll eat when Billy's got enough sleep."

"Very well, Master Teddy." JARVIS's voice was almost gentle. "I will also let the others know not to bother you unnecessarily."

"Thanks, JARVIS." Oh, yes. They had people who cared about them.

Even if said people were sometimes a bit less than traditional.


	19. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony gives his proposal to the kids, with the final choice left up to Billy. Some time later, there may or may not be a scandal or two at the Stark Holiday Charity Reception, but it's most definitely not Darcy's fault.

"So." Tony dropped down on the couch in front of them, setting a few official-looking documents on the table between them. Pepper stood behind the couch, though whether to keep Tony in line or assist him, Billy wasn't quite sure. "We need to talk."

"Talk about what?" Kate asked, somehow managing to look entirely nonchalant despite the bandage around her head. It was just as well; Tommy seemed to be doing fretting enough for them both, not that he would have ever admitted to it. "And what are these?"

"These papers?" Tony grinned. "Oh, they're a report from a certain laboratory."

"Or, more to the point, a forgery," Pepper added with a dry tone. "Just so we're clear on this."

"Maybe, but it's a very convincing forgery. Mostly because it's a genuine report, only the tests described in it never actually took place."

"So it's still a forgery, no matter what." Billy raised his eyebrows. "What exactly is this about?"

"Oh, I called in a favor from an old friend at a certain genetics lab." Tony's lips curled into a smirk. "I ordered for a few simple paternity tests."

"Paternity tests?" Teddy's tone was dubious. "Do I even want to know why you would need those?"

"I think in this case, you do want to know." Tony pointed at two of the documents. "These confirm that I am the father of two children, while this," he pointed at the last one, "implicates Bruce as the father of one." He glanced at them, letting that sink in. "Clint says he's willing to step up to the plate if you want a daddy on paper, too, Merida, but we figured that's less urgent as you're actually an adult."

"Wait." That… couldn't be right. "Are you saying you're planning to claim us as your kids?"

"That's more or less the plan." How could he sound so carefree about something like that? "I mean, now that we've confirmed you can't just hop right back home, you need somewhere to be, right? And hopefully a legal identity, too, I'm sure that'd be helpful. JARVIS can fudge the records as to where you came from, and with these, it shouldn't take my hard-working and loyal lawyers too long to to arrange for legal adoption. At least it damn well shouldn't, given how much I'm paying them."

"Right." Billy felt almost dizzy. "Teddy? Did you just hear that?"

"You mean, Tony Stark offering to be your dad? I did hear it, though I'm not sure if I should believe it."

"Hey, it's not like I can't afford to raise a couple of kids. I might even have enough left over to arrange for a Young Avengers college fund for you lot. In my opinion, saving the world from a megalomaniac should at least entitle you to a free ride for higher education."

"You don't have to accept, of course," Pepper added, with a weighty gaze in Tony's direction. "If you accept, you can just as well say goodbye to a normal teenage life or secret identities. It won't take the media five minutes to draw the connection between Tony Stark's new family members and the mysterious teen heroes, and while Tony may be fine with everyone knowing who he is, it's not as simple for everyone."

"It's not your only option," Tony admitted. "We can just as easily set you up somewhere out of the public eye. We won't even need quite as much documentation, as random teens living on their own probably won't have their past scrutinized quite as much as new additions to the Avengers family would. So, if you would rather leave heroics behind and focus on important things such as school and friends and hanging out or whatever it is you kids do these days, you can do that, too. Just, you know. You want to hang on to the capes, that's more than possible."

"Why would you do that, though?" Of course Tommy would be the one to voice their doubts. "You let us stay here because there weren't many other options. I can also see why you'd be willing to pay for our living or whatever. What I don't get is why the hell you'd want to take on that amount of responsibility and actually permanently claim us."

"Because I'm a selfish bastard and like making things my own?" Tony tilted his head a bit. "You could probably say it's because I know what it's like both to have shitty parents and to have none, but I would deny everything if you tried to say something that stupid."

"Eh. As long as I'm not expected to get all sentimental and shit, I don't really care." Tommy glanced at Billy, now. "Of course, it all depends on how baby brother feels about continuing with the hero stuff."

"What?" Billy frowned. "It's not like it's just my decision."

"Uh, no offense, but it kind of is." Tommy didn't have to look at him like he was some kind of an idiot. "You know Prince Green and Charming will go wherever you go, Kate will want to stick with the team, and I don't really give much of a damn where I am. So, yes, it comes down to you in the end."

"Except Kate would choose you over us." Surely not even Tommy could be that blind? "And besides, you all want to be Avengers again."

"And you don't?" That was just not fair. "You know, you can be pretty transparent sometimes. Even I know it's not that you don't want to be a hero, you're just afraid of what might happen if you are. And I know there's been a lot of shit going on, but that was all back there. This is a blank slate, as much as we're ever going to get one."

"It's not that simple."

"Nobody said it was simple." And at last Kate took part in the discussion. "However, Tommy is right. This is a chance at a new start for all of us. A world where we've never been anything but heroes."

"There are no Skrull or Kree here." Teddy's voice was quiet enough that Billy doubted anyone but he heard it. "Nobody coming after us because of parents we have never even met."

"So it's three against one, huh?"

"Of course not." And Tommy actually had the gall to say that with an almost serious tone of voice. "All your choice, bro. No pressure or anything."

"There is a third option, of course." Billy nearly startled as Pepper spoke up all of a sudden. "You can all stay here, but Billy doesn't have to take part in any hero activities. It's not exactly a normal life, but it's as close as a Stark could ever hope for."

"No." The word was out of his mouth before he even thought about it. "No, that's absolutely not an option."

"And why not?" Tony raised his eyebrows. "If you think you couldn't stay out of all that while you're connected to us, just ask Pepper. It's amazing how much easier it is to keep your loved ones out of villainous hands when you invest in proper security measures."

"That's not it." Billy shook his head. "However, I refuse to stay behind when my team goes out."

Tony's lips twitched, just a bit, but the spark in his eyes was clear enough. "Good thing I'm not too particular about curfews, then, isn't it?"

He didn't know if this was the best choice. Hell, he didn't even know if this was a good choice.

However, he did know this was the only choice he could possibly make.

*

"No, Ma'am, that is actually not the reason." Tony almost wished he could have glared at the person at the other end of the line, but it might have been for the better that it wasn't an option. Both Pepper and Steve got so irate when he got unpleasant with relatively innocent members of the general public. "I understand that you may have some concerns, but I assure you, we did not change the name of the traditional Stark Christmas Charity Reception to the Stark Holiday Charity Reception in an attempt to blaspheme against the one true holy God and to cheapen His birthday party."

He set the phone between his shoulder and ear, quickly adjusting his tie. "Yes, Ma'am, I am aware that this might seem like a highly suspicious move on our part. I do apologize for any worry this might have caused you." And vowed to fire whoever should have been screening his calls. He'd have loved nothing as much as to hang up on the old hag, but she had often been one of the most generous contributors and Pepper wanted him to behave. "We merely felt it was about time to make the title more inclusive towards people of all faiths and creeds, brought together in our cause to better the world in the spirit of peace and goodwill toward men."

Clint had appeared in the doorway, seeming amused at his agony. He looked more put-together than most of the time, with a nice lavender shirt and an amethyst vest over it, but his smirk was just as shit-eating as ever. Bastard.

"Actually, Ma'am, it was not done due to consideration toward our Asgardian teammate, though that would be a valid assumption as well." Why did he even bother, again? "I merely felt it would be more respectful toward my sons, given their Jewish heritage and upbringing." So to be perfectly technical, Tommy was not a Jew of any description and Billy dabbled in Wicca when the mood struck him. None of that was actually any of her business.

"Oh, I am quite certain our team still has a very strong moral core. If you would be so kind as to attend the party, you should take the opportunity to talk with Captain Rogers for a moment. I'm sure he will be able to convince you that we have not abandoned our goal of greater good for the sake of appealing to the masses." Which meant he'd have to make this up to Steve somehow. If she got the chance to talk his ear off before having a heart attack from seeing Teddy and Billy acting all affectionate, at least. Somehow Tony doubted that was entirely in line with her views.

"Thank you, Ma'am. I look forward to seeing you tonight." Somehow, he managed to hold his sigh back until the call ended. Then, he turned to glare at Clint. "And what's so funny now, Legolas?"

"Oh, nothing. Just admiring your approach to diplomacy." And still that same grin. "A difficult one?"

"Honestly? I half expected her to start frothing about Jesus killers when I mentioned the twins. She gives a lot of money to what she sees as good causes, but if Pepper hadn't told me not to cause any scandals until the party's over, I'd have told her to fuck off. It's just not worth the half-panicked bigotry."

"Right." Clint paused. "And how is she going to react to finding out Cap's a mostly devout Catholic?"

"My guess? Meltdown. But, hey, not my doing." Tony eyed Clint critically. "Not bad, I've got to say."

"What? I am actually an adult, you know. I can dress myself properly."

"Oh, I never doubted you couldn't," Tony chuckled. "You must've had to dress nice once or twice on all those SHIELD ops before. However, I have to admit I'm somewhat surprised you didn't try to show up in a sleeveless shirt or something."

"Yeah, well, Natasha informed me in no uncertain terms that she would only allow that if I let her rip off my arms first, in which case I would have little use for sleeves anyway."

"See, the scary thing is, I'm not even sure if you're being serious or not. Or, for that matter, if she was."

"Your guess is as good as mine." Clint flashed him a grin, though. "So, are the kids ready for the party?"

"They'd better be. I've made sure JARVIS reminded them of the time at least five times."

"I wasn't referring to the timing as much as their inclination to be ready." Clint smirked. "Last I heard, Kate was despairing about how Tommy had all but sworn not to wear anything even slightly formal."

"Like she has any room to talk. She'd given Pepper a hard time shopping for dresses because apparently that's a waste of money."

"Yeah, I heard the same complaints." Clint chuckled. "Apparently Pepper promised her that if she got a dress enough like her hero costume, people would understand her wearing the same one several times."

"Pepper can be devious like that, yeah." Tony grinned. "Well, hopefully they'll show up soon; the party starts in half an hour and Steve told me I'm not allowed to be late."

"Well, luckily Cap didn't mention anything about us." And here was Tommy all of a sudden. The kid definitely had a knack for appearing at the worst of times.

"You know, it really doesn't make sense for you to be late. People might think you're not as fast as you say you are."

"Good try, but no dice. I'm not going to get fooled by that." Tommy smirked. "The others will get here when they get around to it, the slowpokes."

"You know, I'm not entirely sure it's that big of a failing to be slower than you." Tony then gave the boy a scrutinizing glance. Black slacks, a green dress shirt the same color as his uniform, with white details. "Not bad."

"I blame Kate. I wanted to show up in a t-shirt and jeans."

"I'm sure you did. Good thing your girlfriend has more taste than you." Tony looked over to the door as he heard the sounds of more people approaching. "It seems they're not that far behind."

"Yeah, well, they wouldn't let me run ahead until they were almost here." Tommy gave an exaggerated sigh. "Spoilsports."

"The horror, not being able to leave everyone behind." Tony's lips twitched. "It's almost like they care about you or something."

"Oh, yeah, the reason they wouldn't let me go off on my own is because they were afraid I'd get lost in my own home. Totally." Tommy rolled his eyes. "Why can't I just go ahead? Or do you not trust me to make my way a few floors down without help?"

"See, when you grow up, you'll realize it's all about the appearances." Tony patted him on the shoulder. "Aside from paparazzi photos and missions, this is the first time we're appearing as a family, so we should do it together."

"And that's why Hawkass is here?"

"Oh, no. I'm just here to make sure you don't do anything untoward to my little girl." Clint's grin didn't waver, though. "I'm pretty sure Bruce wanted to come along, too, since Teddy will obviously be with Billy."

"Well, isn't that just fucking sweet." Tommy snorted.

"Yeah, it's one of the downsides of having a family. You're supposed to at least pretend to care." He certainly knew all about the pretending part.

"I know. Terrible burden, isn't it." Tommy didn't manage to complain before the others showed up, though. Kate's dress managed to be the exact same shade as Clint's vest, falling off one shoulder to resemble her costume, while Billy managed to both look like his brother and not by accompanying his own red shirt with a silver tie. Teddy was the most dressed up out of them, with a green vest and gold tie over his black shirt, his hair still somewhat messy though he'd obviously made an effort to get it under control.

"Well, wouldn't you look at that. You almost look like grown-ups," Clint remarked with a smirk. "Miss Barton, I'm not sure I should allow you out in public looking like that."

"Yes, because giving Tommy the chance to act without witnesses is so much better for my virtue." Kate raised an eyebrow. "It's a good thing I don't actually have to listen to you, isn't it?"

"Ah, the terrible twenties." Tony gave an exaggerated sigh. "So, assuming Bruce shows up soon, are you ready to face the music?"

"Not much of a chance to back down anymore, is there?" Billy's hand held tightly onto Teddy's. "And anyway, I don't think this is quite as terrible as facing Doom."

"Obviously you don't have much experience with the media. Because believe me, this party will be covered very extensively." It always had been, and this year's party was only going to get more of the same treatment.

"Eh. Hulkling and Wiccan came out on a national paper back in our world. Pretty sure this can't be worse than that."

"Except now you're not only superheroes, but also a Stark and a Banner. That's a whole different can of worms right there." Tony grinned. "I'd say just be yourself, but that might backfire."

"Yeah, better not get too snarky with anyone that matters. There are some similarities to Tony you might not want to highlight." As Tony glanced at him sharply, Clint shrugged. "What? You're not exactly known for your manners most of the time."

"Still. There's no reason to make it sound like being similar to me would be the end of the world."

"Exaggerate much?" Clint chuckled. "Oh, come on, Stark. Let's get Bruce here and go so you can show off your pretty boys to everyone."

"Indeed." Tony paused, glancing at Kate. "Just so you know, at least one of the Bishops is likely to be in attendance."

"That's fine." Kate met his gaze without hesitation. "I'm here as Kate Barton, Hawkeye."

"Yup." Clint nodded. "And Hawkeye is awesome so this will be fine."

"Indeed." Billy's lips twitched into a smile. "We will all be fine."

It was, Tony thought, the greatest hope he could have.

*

This was, Darcy decided, going to be the best party of her life.

At least, it had better live up to the expectations, considering that there was probably never going to be an occasion more luxurious than this that would include her on the invitation list. She still wasn't quite sure how Jane had scored an invitation for her. Okay, sure, so living with Tony Stark probably had some benefits, but still. She hadn't expected those to extend to her.

Of course, she'd thought it was a joke at first, especially when the invitation had arrived in the mail with no advance warning whatsoever. It hadn't been until she had called Jane to make sure that yes, it was the real deal, and no, she wasn't actually expected to donate untold amounts of money, that she'd gone out to get herself a dress suited for the occasion. Not that she didn't have nice clothes, shut up mom, but she definitely didn't have anything of the caliber that could pass muster at a Stark event.

She was probably still one of the few people attending whose outfit cost less than an average working person's yearly wages, judging by the size of gaudy jewelry on some of the ladies she saw on her way up, but she looked damn fine nevertheless. Her dress was dark blue and was supposed to pass any dress code inspections far as she could tell, and her heels were as high as she could manage without fearing twisting her ankle. Nevertheless, even though she took pride in her self-confidence, it was hard not to feel somewhat self-conscious as she walked down the hallway towards the reception hall somewhere halfway up the Avengers Tower.

Darcy could have sworn the man at the door looked at her as though she'd just stepped in from the street, which was why she took great delight in digging out her very official thank you very much invitation from her purse and presenting it to him. Apparently there was no fault to be found with it, as she was admitted in right before a man whose watch probably cost more than Darcy had ever made in her entire life.

There were a lot of people in fine clothes, milling about and making intelligent conversation. Jane wasn't anywhere to be seen, but then Darcy supposed she had probably forgotten the entire thing and was still in her lab, lost to the world. She'd just have to head there once she got bored of the party, assuming she could make it to wherever said lab was. The building was huge, and for all that she'd managed to make her way this far, she had every reason to assume that Tony Stark of all people would have good security.

It was useless to look for familiar faces in this crowd, so she settled for looking for interesting ones instead. Pretty people were a dime in a dozen here, mixed thoroughly with the plain yet rich ones, so they didn't draw much notice from her. Instead, she amused herself with trying to spot obvious security personnel, sipping at a fruity drink she had stolen from a waiter passing by. To her disappointment nobody was actually wearing sunglasses indoors, but then that would have made things too easy.

It was absolutely not her fault, as Darcy would remind anyone who tried to laugh at her when she told the story later. She had been standing perfectly still, her half-finished drink in her hand as she tried to figure out whether the woman in a high-slit dress was wearing it because she wanted to show off her legs or because it made kicking someone in the head that much easier, as someone decided to barge right into her. The drink splashed all over her, while thanks to her heels she would have hit the floor before her glass had someone not immediately caught her.

Blinking up at her savior who was apparently also the one who had caused the near-disaster, Darcy found herself looking into the bluest, brightest eyes she had ever seen on anyone. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry, oh God, I swear I didn't mean to do that, I wasn't looking where I was going and I'm so sorry," the young man babbled. There was something vaguely familiar about him, but Darcy couldn't place him to save her life. "Are you all right?"

"Um. I'm fine, I think." It took her a moment to get back to her feet, and damn she wished she had opted for somewhat more sensible heels, but with his help she did regain her balance. "I can't really say the same for my dress, though."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." He looked genuinely sorry, too, not like someone just trying to be polite. "I swear I didn't mean to do that. I'll pay for it, of course."

"Eh, pretty sure the damage's done." Besides, she doubted she'd ever need a dress this fancy again, anyway. That, and she wasn't sure she wanted to tell the actual price to a guy whose jewelry probably cost more. Not that she was an expert on things like that, but she was pretty sure his cuff links and matching ear studs were actual emeralds, with the cuff links each the size of one of her fingernails. Even if the rest of his numerous earrings were plain nickel, which she rather doubted, those things couldn't have come cheap.

"No, seriously, I feel awful. I totally ruined your dress." He sighed and ran a hand over his hair. "I should have been looking where I was going, it's just that I lost my boyfriend in the crowd, and…"

"No, that's totally understandable." Of course he had a boyfriend. All the pretty ones did. The pretty ones, and her first attempt at a boyfriend back in high school, though to be entirely honest that had been her idea after his atrocious attempt at groping her. "I'm sure I can just wash it off."

"Teddy?" Another voice cut the guy off before he could respond. "Is something the matter?"

"Billy!" His expression brightened immediately. "Good timing. I just managed to ruin this young lady's dress."

"And that's good timing?" And here was another pretty young man, his hair dark to contrast with her sudden acquaintance's blond. The familiar way he slid right up next to the other one and hooked an arm through his made it clear this was the missing boyfriend.

"Well, yeah. You can magic it right back to normal, can't you?" The blond man — Teddy? — gave his beau a hopeful smile.

"Oh, sure." The other man looked at her, now, smiling. Again, she had the nagging feeling that she should have been able to place his face somewhere. "Sorry about that." He waved his free hand, sending off a shower of blue sparks. They settled on the front of her dress and then disappeared, leaving it clean and dry all of a sudden.

Magic. Blue magic. It hadn't been a joke, it was real, and it was blue. "Oh my god I know who you are," Darcy blurted out before she could help herself. "You're Wiccan." Looking at Teddy, the big blond man with the earrings, she blinked. "And you're Hulkling, aren't you?"

"Guilty as charged." Teddy scratched the back of his neck. "Tonight we're here as just Teddy and Billy, though. Well, Teddy Banner and Billy Stark, I suppose, but still."

"And he's your boyfriend." Darcy blinked, then almost bounced on her toes before remembering her heels and wow that would have been a stupid stunt. "I was totally right about you two! I totally called it, Jane refused to comment on the rumors but I called it. And you're coming out now? That's so awesome. Bet it's going to be all over the 'net before the night is over!"

"I'd say our relationship is the least sordid thing happening in this Tower, but I wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea." Billy chuckled. "You know Jane?"

"Yeah, I was her assistant for a while." She grinned. "She keeps saying I should come back, but I'm kinda torn between that and grad school. Though then, it's taken me long enough to finish my first degree, so…"

"Oh, so you must be Darcy." What was that? Jane had actually talked about her? She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. "She did say you were coming to the party, but didn't give us much of a description."

"Yes, that would be me." Darcy gave a dramatic sigh. "To think that I manage to literally run into a gorgeous superhero dream prince and he turns out to be both gay and taken."

Teddy chuckled, a soft flush on his cheeks. "Sorry to disappoint you. I'm sure you're a nice girl, but it'd take a bit more than that for me to break off my engagement."

"Engagement?" Darcy blinked. "Seriously?"

"For quite a while now." Billy leaned in, giving her a conspiratorial whisper. "Actually, we're going to exchange rings tonight, when the party's gone on long enough that nobody's keeping an eye on us. Then we'll see how long it takes for anyone to notice."

"Oh, that's the kind of mischief I can definitely get behind." Darcy grinned. "If I see you then, do you want me to pretend not to notice or cause a fuss?"

"A fuss might be preferable, actually," Teddy said. "We're kind of worried that if nothing is going on, Tony will cause a scandal."

"Oh? He'd do something worse than two of the nation's most sought-after bachelors making their engagement public?"

"I told you," Billy said, sighing even as there was a smile on his face. "Things much more sordid than we are capable of."

"Do I want to know?"

"Well, hopefully he won't tell you until after the party's over. Pepper's got us on a strict limit of one PR scandal a week, and nobody wants to make her angry." Billy shook his head. "Come along, let's go say hi. He'll appreciate the break from obnoxious rich people, and I'm sure he'll be grateful enough to find a suitably non-boring guy to keep you company."

"My heroes." She grinned. "Lead the way." The best party was still in the air, but this was definitely shaping out to be the most interesting one, at least.

Of course, that was all before she was introduced to one Johnny Storm.

(In their defense, alcohol was a notoriously flammable substance.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the epilogue and the secret scenes after the credits. ^_~


	20. Epilogue - In the Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy and Teddy run into someone less than pleasant while out on errands. Fortunately, they have the means to deal with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yesterday's update was the last chapter of [Mothers and Sons](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1082979). As for today, there will be another (and last) chapter up shortly.
> 
> Please note that this chapter contains **homophobic language and a threat of violence**. Please read accordingly.

"So, was there a particular reason we're picking up this stuff for Tony?"

"Besides the fact that he needs new toys to tinker with?" Billy shrugged as he pushed open the door to the Stark Tech store. The place was brightly lit, but still enough of a change from outdoors that he shifted his sunglasses down a bit. "Since we were out anyway, he decided we could just as well pick these up."

"Doesn't he usually have these delivered straight from the factory?" Teddy glanced around the store. They hadn't been to this particular one before, not that they often had to get their Stark gadgets from a store of any kind.

"Or builds them himself, yeah. But this time he asked us. Maybe he pissed off someone at the factory?" It was certainly easy enough to imagine Tony making someone angry enough that he'd try to avoid contacting them for a while.

"That, or he just wanted an excuse to bother us." Teddy grinned, a familiar look even with his red hair and dark eyes. It was something of a pity that they had to disguise themselves, but the Avengers had been in the news just the week before, and the inconvenience was well worth the smaller chance of getting their day out interrupted by someone who recognized them.

"I wouldn't put it past him." Billy chuckled, then blinked as he looked further into the store. There seemed to be some kind of a commotion going on, with a big, burly man growling at a younger man in a store uniform. The employee couldn't have been much older than Billy and Teddy themselves, and seemed rather distressed.

Teddy frowned at the sight as well, walking closer with Billy at his heels. Billy knew he was ready to intervene the moment the customer seemed to be getting physical. In costume or out, his boyfriend just couldn't help his heroic streak.

Funny, how even after so long Billy was quite ready to fall in love with him all over again.

"I said," the large customer ground out, with obvious venom in his voice, "get someone else here, now. I refuse to be served by the likes of you."

"As I've already told you, Sir," the young man replied with just barely shaking voice, "all our other employees are currently busy. If you'd like someone else to serve you, you will have to wait."

"Do I look like I give a fuck?" The man took a small step closer. "I shouldn't be left to deal with some good-for-nothing fag!"

Billy drew in a breath, and knew even without looking that Teddy shifted, ever so slightly. Just a bit taller and broader and stronger, nothing his clothes couldn't handle, but definitely enough to make for a more intimidating figure. He was himself ready to throw a shield between the two if it seemed necessary.

"Sir, that is absolutely unnecessary —"

"Don't you try to lie to me!" the man bellowed. Even the other people in the store turned to look, now, but he didn't seem to either notice or care. "I saw you earlier, with your little slut of a boyfriend making googly eyes at each other! How dare you display that kind of thing in public!"

"Frankly, Sir, that has nothing to do with you." Billy had to commend the guy's bravery. Despite the still slight trembling in his voice, he was standing straight, facing the man without flinching. "I assure you, my personal life has no bearing on my ability to serve you."

"The fuck it doesn't! Like I want some dirty faggot like you handling a phone I'm going to buy!"

Teddy was about to step forward, but Billy stopped him with a hand to his arm. With a sigh he took off his glasses and stuck them in his pocket, stepping forward. As he halted next to the two, he was sporting a neat goatee and a store uniform. "Excuse me, Sir, is there a problem with one of our employees?"

"About time someone came!" Wow, the audacity. "You need to kick this little fag right outta this place! He shouldn't be anywhere near respectable customers!"

"I see." He glanced at the young man, who was staring at him with astonishment. It wasn't a wonder, what with him being an utter stranger. "Let me get this straight, Sir. You believe this employee is homosexual, and as such, would prefer not to be served by him?"

"Damn straight!" the man growled, huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf himself. "I've no idea why they allow fucking degenerates like him in the public to begin with!"

"Thank you for explaining your concern, Sir." Billy looked him directly in the eye. "Now, if you would be so kind and get the hell out of this store."

"What?" The man sputtered. "You can't —"

"Do not make me repeat myself." Billy dug out his phone, not even bothering to look at the man right now. He knew Teddy would intervene if the idiot seemed about to lunge. "JARVIS? Make sure every store in the chain gets his face. He's banned from every location, effective immediately."

"Very well." He could have sworn there was a tone of satisfaction to JARVIS's voice. The idiot's eyes seemed to be bugging out of his face as he heard it.

By now, an actual manager was approaching, apparently having decided the situation needed her intervention. "Excuse me, but —"

"Ah, excellent timing!" Billy flashed the manager a grin. "No worries here, this man has been banned for his inexcusable behavior and will be escorted out of here shortly. Won't he, Teddy?" He glanced at his boyfriend, who gave him a firm nod. "In the meantime, I'd like to compliment this young man for keeping his cool in the face of such abuse."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" the man finally blurted out, doubtlessly echoing a hopefully less crass question on the manager's mind. "What the fuck do you think gives you the right —"

"Who, me?" Billy smiled, letting his features and clothes blink back to his usual attire. "My name is William Stark. And while I am sure the store will be struggling without your significant contribution to its income, it just so happens that my father is extremely averse to letting bigoted idiots poke at stuff he's designed."

"You can't do this!" the man raged. "I'm going to sue this whole place!"

"What, the store? The employees have been nothing but polite with you. If you'd like to take on the army of lawyers my family employs, though, please, by all means."

"You can't ban me from here! Just because your dad's rich doesn't mean you can order us ordinary people around!"

"Luckily, I can." Finally, the manager had overcome her shock. "Sir, please leave the store property. We have the right to refuse service, and I will not allow anyone to talk about my employees like that." She actually seemed to be sincere, not simply pandering. "You are not welcome here, now or ever again."

"Master William?" JARVIS interjected. "I have passed on the message to the systems of all our locations. They will know this man as a troublemaker."

"Thank you, JARVIS." Billy engaged the key lock and put his phone away, giving the idiot a sunny smile. "Was there anything else?"

The man still seemed to be about to protest. However, a quick look at Teddy made him change his mind. He rushed out of the store, still shouting abuse over his shoulder.

"I do apologize for the scene." The manager sighed. "And thank you for helping out. I was at the back of the store and did not notice the situation until he was yelling."

"Nah, I'm sorry for interfering. Sticking my nose into things that aren't any of my business seems to run in the family, I'm afraid." He glanced at the young employee. "You all right? For a moment there I thought he'd attack you."

"I'm fine, thanks to you." The young man grinned all of a sudden. "If we weren't both taken, I'd probably ask you out." There was still a hint of relief audible in his joking tone. "As it is, though, I'll just have to ask what I can do for you."

"Oh, you're going to regret that one." Billy sighed theatrically, digging his phone out again. Teddy walked up to his side, his usual size again, and Billy leaned closer to him without even thinking as he dug up Tony's message on his phone. "Believe me, you're not going to be so eager when you see the list my father's got for us to pick up…"

*

"So, let me get this straight." Tony rubbed his forehead. "While at the Stark Tech store, you saw some asshole verbally harassing an employee for the horrific crime of being gay, so you impersonated a store manager, berated him, and got him banned from all our locations? And also gave your name and face just to make sure this will be on half the news sites before dinnertime?"

"Well, yes, I suppose that's more or less it." Billy shrugged, unconcerned. "Also, we got you the phones and tablets you wanted. Was there something I should have done differently?"

"You'd better believe there is." Tony pointed an accusatory finger. "I simply can't believe you and big blond didn't put on a show for him. I'm terribly disappointed in you, Billy."

"I'll try to remember next time." He grinned. "So I didn't bring shame to the family name?"

"Young man, if you want to do that, you're going to have to try way harder." Tony shook his head. "That stunt? Deserves double desserts for a week."

Even with strange delivery requests and having to hide his face, it wasn't always bad to call Tony Stark his father.


	21. After Credits - Ill Omens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is worried about certain new developments in the SHIELD files. Billy has run into something sinister, and someone, somewhere, is making plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this, we come to the end of this story. And not just any story -- it's the longest piece I have finished writing and posting since 2005, and the first actual NaNo project I've managed to take beyond a mere November word count to an actual conclusion.
> 
> My many thanks to my dearest friend **Asario** , without whom I probably wouldn't have finished the story. Also, I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read this far. May your shields be strong and your magic sparkly!

The call was picked up faster than he expected. Tony wasn't sure if this was good or bad. Fury often kept him waiting purely out of spite, so if he was willing to talk, something was definitely up.

"Stark." At least his voice didn't betray anything out of the ordinary, but then, it rarely did. "What is it?"

"Fury. Would you be interested in telling me why your files on my kids have the wrong code names on them?"

"Oh, certainly. Soon as you inform me just why you were viewing their SHIELD files."

"As their father, of course I felt it to be my parental duty to ascertain their safety, even from the so-called good guys." Tony tapped his fingertips against the desk, eyes on the documents on the screen. He did not like this one bit. "So. The code names?"

"What's wrong with them? You should be thanking us, really. Isn't it better for their continued safety that the SHIELD files are not connected to any of their publicly known names?"

That much at least was true; both their real names and pictures were behind classification walls far too high for the average SHIELD goon to cross. That didn't mean he necessarily had to like the alternative. "Oh, sure. However, I'm going to question your motivations when those fake code names are obviously related to certain former SHIELD assets."

Fury paused, only for a moment, but it was enough for him to take note. "Their names are in no way connected to any SHIELD personnel, past or present, that you have any business knowing about."

"Hey, it's not like I ran a search for similar names." He didn't like this, didn't like tipping his hand in such a way, but the names were enough of an indication that Fury had drawn the same conclusions. "I only told JARVIS to look up information related to the civilian names they gave me for their known relatives from their own world."

"And that brought up something of interest?"

"Not directly, no. At least, not at the time. After all, the people bearing those names in this world have no connection to the boys." Tony paused. "However, JARVIS also alerted me when you updated the files on Tommy and Billy. I would rather appreciate it if you didn't go around wishing bad luck on my poor kids."

"I only assigned them names I found appropriate."

"Really? You thought those were appropriate names for two kids?"

"You should be thankful, really. At least it indicates that I consider them to be on our side."

"I wonder." Tony's nails tapped out an even angrier rhythm. "You keep your dirty hands off my kids. They may be Avengers, but that doesn't make them your assets."

"Of course not. SHIELD does not recruit minors." Yeah, which was probably the only line they'd ever drawn on such matters. "If there's nothing else, I do have work to get back to." He heard the faint sound of computer keys being tapped, and then a low grumble that almost sounded like a curse.

Tony felt a grin spreading on his face. "Something the matter, Director?"

"Keep your hands off my files, Stark."

"What? As their father, I felt the most qualified to evaluate their power levels." He smirked at the phone. "Or was there perhaps something the matter with the scale I used?"

"You claim the explosive kid is 'Mostly harmless.'"

"Well, he is. An energetic kid, sure, but with enough activity, that can be channeled in a productive way. I'm sure you agree."

"Which obviously explains the power evaluation on his brother's file."

"Some things, my dear Director, are just unavoidable." Tony chuckled. "Surely, you have at least some appreciation for the classics of speculative fiction?" It certainly was unavoidable in as much as he was going to make sure Fury didn't edit them out.

"Really, Stark? 'So long, and thanks for all the fish'?" Which, of course, was the moment JARVIS cut the call. Tony had the best AI in the world, after all.

JARVIS was good enough, in fact, that he didn't need to be told to ignore Fury's calls as Tony sank back in his chair, grin making way for the frown of deep thought. However much he joked, the fact remained that the names on SHIELD's files bearing Billy and Tommy's details were not Speed and Wiccan.

Mercury and Azure Witch.

He could only hope they'd have a better future than those Fury had named them after.

*

It wasn't until Billy felt a hand on his shoulder that he realized he wasn't alone in the room anymore. "Teddy?" He looked up, blinking as he saw his boyfriend grinning at him. "When did you get here?"

"Long enough ago that I've managed to call your name a couple of times." Teddy chuckled. "I was starting to think that book had actually put you under a spell."

"I'd like to think Strange would warn me if any of the books he gave me could do that." He turned his chair around, reaching his arms around Teddy's waist now that he was facing him. "Weren't you supposed to be sparring with Cap until dinner?"

"I was. Then I had a shower and came to drag you away from your books." Teddy leaned down to kiss the top of his head, then reached past him to take a look at the book. "Magical artifacts? What does that even have to do with your training?"

"It helps me gain a better understanding of the principles of magic in general." He buried his face in Teddy's chest. "It's kind of important if we have to go against another magician."

"So you're going to be our magic expert, huh?" One of Teddy's hands came back to his shoulder, big and warm. "What were you reading about that caught your interest so you ignored me?"

"This rather nasty spear that steals hearts and souls. But you're much more interesting, don't worry. Besides, you got my heart first."

"That's good to hear at least." Teddy chuckled, the sound vibrating through his entire body. "So. Dinner?"

"Sure. I'm starving." And he was, now that he wasn't too focused on the book to even notice.

"Good." Teddy stepped back, prompting him to get up as well. "It's Tony's turn to cook, so we're probably in for a lot of pizza."

Billy laughed. "At least I know I can carry on the family recipes."

"I'd be surprised if you couldn't." Teddy slid his hands down to grasp Billy's, taking them into his. "Now come on. If we dally too long, they're going to think we're doing something indecent."

"Right." Billy grinned. "But we can do something indecent after dinner, can't we?"

"If you don't get too caught up in your books again, I think we could come up with something." Teddy returned his grin, delighted and brilliant and all so very Teddy.

"I think I've done more than enough reading for one night." Billy took one last look at the picture on the open page, a rather nasty-looking cross between a spear and a scepter, adorned with a single large, blue gem.

Then he followed Teddy out to join his family.

*

The footage from the original battle hadn't been run on television for a while now, but it was still all too easy to find online, along with more recent pieces of evidence. Aside from the news reports floating around, there were countless images and clips from individual people, uploaded from cell phones at the time of the battle. Here was a green giant gently setting down a small child after a flight, there an arrow stuck through the head of a robotic monster, an explosion in the distance down a deserted street. Most of the images and videos, however, were of no interest to him. What he wanted were quite specific images.

One of them couldn't be found very easily, not that it was all that surprising. Most times he had been caught at all it was only as a blur, an indistinct image only barely captured, a hint of green in the distance far gone by the time the picture had been taken. There were a couple of images where he was moving slower, though, helping the civilians, even posing for one picture with a self-satisfied smirk and a spark in his eyes. It was hard to tell the color of his eyes through the goggles he wore, except that they were very light, but his hair was a mop of pure white even with dust and debris clinging to it, tousled from the speeds he ran at, as bright as his grin when he helped reunite a child with his mother. There was white in his costume as well, white and green, a dynamic design few got to appreciate as he sped off again too fast for the eye to follow.

The other, though, had been captured several times, once even on a clip that was rumored to have been recorded by the Iron Man armor itself, proof of how these new heroes were truly on their side. It would have been hard to mistake him, too, with the red cape flowing in the air like a stark warning to his enemies. His eyes and hair were as dark as his brother's were light, black even when lit up by fire or explosions next to him, highlighted blue in the glow of his magic as he reached out his hand. And his magic, sparkling and beautiful, the color of raw electricity, lifting him in the air as easily as though he were a dry leaf in the wind.

He found other pictures as well, calm ones when they weren't out saving lives, the first shots after the scandal was brought out, more recent ones as they got used to being in the public. Two mirror images, young and beautiful, so similar to their rumored father that he could actually forgive the fools who fell for the obvious lie.

It was a lie, all of it, because he would have known had their mother perished, would have known due to the truth he saw so clearly before his eyes. Except the truth was also an impossibility, something that he had destroyed with his own hands before he could ever see it become reality.

He turned off the computer, the screen flickering dead. His own image was reflected in the darkened surface, his white hair and heavy shoulders and eyes too lonely for redemption.

The truth was an impossibility, but it was also the only hope he could grasp at the moment.

His only hope if he wanted his children back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **About Continuation** : Yes, I have plenty of ideas for a sequel. However, I don't know when I'll have the energy to start actually writing it, and furthermore, I likely won't start posting it until I have built a comfortable buffer (that, and it definitely won't be updated as frequently as this one has been).
> 
> If you'd like to be notified when the sequel starts, subscribe to the series this fic is part of. If you'd like to know what the sequel is going to be about -- well, you've just received three rather sizable hints. ^_~


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